Population Genetic History Of The Indian Peninsula Endowed...

Population genetic history of the Indian peninsula endowed with heterogenous complexity has received a huge attention worldwide. The incessant waves of migration of people from ancient to present time and from various directions across the world have significantly contributed in India being a genetic melting pot. The earliest inhabitant being the Austro- Asatic people around 60,000 years ago from Africa, entered India through western corridor(Nei and Ota 1991; Majumder 2001) or they have migrated from China into India through northeastern corridor (Gadgil et al 1998; Diamond 1997) followed by the arrival of Dravidian speakers around 3000 BCE from ancient Caspian civilization originated in East Africa (Lahovary N 1963, Winters CA 1985) and Tibeto-Burman speakers from South West China or North West China and southeast Asia around 8,000 to 10,000 years ago. The last major migration is believed to have occurred around 1500 BCE by Indo-European speakers in consecutive waves over a long pe riod of time (Kashyap et al., 2006). Northeast India comprising the contiguous seven states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura are thought to be an important corridor for human migrations. Flanked on the north by the Eastern Himalayas (Patkai-Naga Hills and Lushai Hills) and in the south by the Bay of Bengal, constitutes a distinctive narrow passageway that connects the Indian subcontinent to East Asia and Southeast Asia (Sharma 1984). It is the