Scientist makes a case for conservation efforts on the lines of those for tigers and elephants
At best, they are plucked in the wild and become a popular item on the menu in restaurants. At the worst, they become the bane of stored food and cultivated crop, giving them a reputation comparable to unwanted pests.
However, a scientist is now making the case for “Project Fungi”, on the lines of programmes for tigers and elephants, to conserve the ‘much-neglected’ micro-organism. Currently, fungi do not feature in the environmental or conservation laws of the country.
“In India, we do not know how many species have become extinct due to habitat loss, or at a critical stage. There has been no national conservation effort so far,” said T.S. Suryanarayanan, Director of the Vivekananda Institute of Tropical Mycology, Chennai.
He put forward the case for a “holistic effort of policy and research” for fungi during a recent meet of ecologists, conservationists and biologists at the Indian Institute of Science. “India being a tropical country is brimming with fungi, and there is a need to identify novel species that can used in bio-technology, agriculture, medicine and industry,” he told The Hindu .
Elsewhere, fungi is slowly getting attention for conservation. International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) states the “ecological and economic importance” of fungi is “huge” and its conservation is “essential” for the ecosystem.
However, in a paper on “fungal conservation in India”, mycologist K.V. Sankaran believed “non-availability of funds” and “difficulty” in convincing politicians and policy makers of the importance of conserving fungi had resulted in “inadequate” conservation.
Low research
Despite the use of fungal enzymes to develop cholesterol medicines and to lower rejection rate of the immune system to transplanted organs, fungi remains low on the priority list of bio-tech companies, says Prof. Suryanarayanan. More research is needed to use fungi to treat malaria and TB, and even for bio-fuel production. “Fungi that attacks insects can be researched to extract enzymes to be used as pesticides…fungi near tanneries have developed the ability to withstand high levels of chromium.”
