Under the rules introduced in December 1998, laboratories which breed or experiment with animals are required to get themselves registered with the Committee for the Purpose of Control and Supervision of Experiments on Animals (CPCSEA) which is chaired by Maneka Gandhi, Minister for Social Justice and herself an animal activist.

Although NCLAS had applied twice, it was refused registration on the ground that it was using monkeys trapped from the wild (instead of being laboratory-bred) and that they were kept in cages not up to international standards -- arguments that are denied by NCLAS.

Last week A P Singh, secretary of thecommittee, ordered NCLAS to release all the 48 monkeys as a condition for registration and, according to NCLAS scientists, warned their director Kamala Krishnaswami of imprisonment if the order was not complied with.

But NCLAS, which is under the Indian Council of Medical Research, has refused to comply on the plea that the monkeys were trapped with permission from the forest department and were currently involved in trial of life saving medicines such as `alpha-interferon' (a drug against cancer) and `chlorella', an algal protein claimed to be extremely useful for soldiers fighting in high altitudes like Kargil.

The scientists say that release of the monkeys back into the wild was out of question as the rules of the forest department of the state of Andhra Pradesh do not allow this.

Meanwhile, in the absence of registration, NCLAS scientist in-charge S Hariharan says that all normal activities at the centre have come to a stand still. "We have stopped breeding and supply of laboratory animals to ourclients and even practical examinations for biology students in one college were postponed as no animals could be supplied for dissection."

NCLAS which is recognized as a centre of excellence by the International Council of Laboratory Animal Sciences and the World Health Organization imparts training to scientists from several countries besides India. The centre has over 30,000 animals including valuable strains of mice and rats which have been raised over several decades. Sandip Basu, director of the National Institute of Immunology in New Delhi says the action taken against NCLAS would cost the nation a fortune in terms of time lost in drug discovery.

"The committee operates in an unscientific way," says Basu whose application six months ago for import of transgenic mice is awaiting approval.

When asked to state the conditions for according recognition to NCLAS Singh told PTI: "NCLAS should use laboratory-bred monkeys instead of trapping from the wild and should build bigger cages and provide separateruns for each monkey and put in place a retirement and rehabilitation programme for the monkeys used in experiments."

NCLAS scientists say the committee's conditions are tantamount to closing down the finest animal breeding facility in the country. They say they may have to take legal course to find a solution by pointing out that the rules framed by the committee clashes with rules made by other ministries especially the ministry of environment and forests.