In a concerning event, three prominent Indian scientists, Mukesh Thakur, Lalit Kumar Sharma, and Avijit Ghosh, were compelled to withdraw their paper titled ‘Two Y chromosome lineages in White-Cheeked Macaque (Macaca leucogenys)’ from the newly launched international, peer-reviewed journal Wildlife Letters, published by Northeast Forestry University in China.

The withdrawal comes in the wake of objections raised by Chinese authorities regarding the inclusion of Arunachal Pradesh, a region at the center of the ongoing border dispute between India and China.

Initially accepted on February 14, 2023, the paper was published online on April 5, 2023, as per reports.

Reportedly, the scientists were allegedly pressed by the Chinese government to exclude Arunachal Pradesh from their study, citing discrepancies with their officially defined map.

Refusing to comply with this demand, the authors made the decision to withdraw the paper in October 2023.

Mukesh Thakur, the lead author and Officer-in-Charge of the Mammal Section at the Zoological Survey of India, with over 100 papers and recipient of prestigious awards, condemned the incident as “scientific terrorism.”

He further expressed dismay over the pressure to conform to Chinese mapping standards, calling it unreasonable and attributing it to the ultimate withdrawal of the paper.

In response to the withdrawal, Dr. Thakur has expressed his intention to pursue legal action through an international court, denouncing the journal’s decision as “unwarranted” and based on “national regulations concerning the name of specific regions.”