About the Department
The Department of Botany was established with the inception of the university in 1946. The founder of the department was great Prof. R. Misra, FNA, known as the father of Ecology in India. Subsequently, it was nurtured under the leadership of Prof. S.B. Saksena, FNA, a renowned mycologist.
The Department of Botany has been in the forefront of teaching and research in plant sciences since its establishment in 1946. The Department stands today as a unique institution in the Central India with multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary teaching and research in plant sciences. The uniqueness of the Department essentially lies in the fact that within the Department’s faculty, there are experts and active researchers representing almost all areas of plant sciences. We believe that to be effective, undergraduate, and postgraduate teaching must be done by teachers who are also actively involved in research in their respective areas of specialization. We have developed a teaching programme that stresses on the uniformity of principles of macro as well as micro molecular mechanisms in all living systems. The Department, serves as a catalyst in the vital scientific and educational activities of India and has a commitment to continue its service to the nation.
Quality teaching requires ongoing research activities, which needs a good deal of financial support. The research fellows of the Department constitute the core of its research activities. The Department has been operating several research projects funded by various National and International agencies; National funding agencies like Department of Biotechnology, Council of Scientific & Industrial Research, Department of Science & Technology, Ministry of Environment and Forests, University Grants Commission. The financial support received through these projects thus not only enables the faculty members in running their research programmes, but also enable the students to take challenging and modern research topics for their Ph.D. thesis. The faculty of the Department has produced quality research publications in reputed national and international journals e. g. Nature, PNAS (USA), Nature Ecology & Evolution, Nature Plants, Journal of Ecology, Critical Review in Biotechnology, Total Science of Environment, Ecological Indicators, Biodiversity & Conservation etc. The sustained efforts of the faculty have resulted in numerous awards, honours, and recognitions to the teachers as well as the students of the Department. In recognition to his contributions in the field of Biological Sciences, President of India has conferred 7th Visitor Award - 2021 on Professor Mohammed Latif Khan. In addition, we have the honour of having had two Fellows of the Indian National Science Academy (FNA) and one Fellow of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences. In recognition of the excellent work carried out by the department, the University Grants Commission has extended its financial support to the Department under its DRS and SAP programmes. The non-teaching staff of the Department actively assists the faculty in carrying out its teaching and research programmes. Besides helping in the conducting the practical classes of B. Sc. and M. Sc. students, our technical staff and gardeners help in maintaining the herbarium and the botanical garden.
The level of expertise available with us and the infrastructure we have makes it imperative for us to think about the future activities of the Department in fulfilling its mandate of providing training of the highest quality to students of the region and the country at large. In this context, we have taken cognizance of the high richness of floristic wealth and diversity of ecosystems and gene pool in the region. Due to the mosaic nature of geo-climatic conditions in the region, the flora and vegetation of Central India shows enormous variation. The region is also home to a large variety of traditional crops specially of millets that could form an important component of human diet in times to come. The rich biodiversity of the region can generate economic value in terms of extractable plant products, compounds, genes and species. In view of increasing human activities of various types in the region and the upcoming patenting regimes, there is a need for proper evaluation, characterization, documentation, and conservation of the plant genetic resources of the region for utilization and economic well-being of the people.
The Department is emphasizing research in following areas: microbial diversity and its conservation; survey of plant genetic resources of the region, their taxonomic characterization and establishment of physical and electronic herbaria; conservation of plant diversity using both in vitro as well as in vivo technologies; establishment of gene bank of the region; molecular characterization of rare, endangered and endemic plants of the region; ecological analysis of forest ecosystems of Central India including plant biodiversity inventory and conservation; ecology of agro-forestry ecosystem; documentation of plant genetic resources using molecular markers; molecular phylogeny and ecology. These studies may help generate economic value in terms of extractable plant products, compounds, genes and species, for conservation of ecosystems and plant genetic resources for utilization and economic well-being of the people.