Department of Botany

The Department of Botany came into existence in 1923 and it is one of the oldest University Departments of Botany in the country.The Department is known for its multidisciplinary character and has earned international recognition for its standards of teaching and research. The Department can be proud of having produced eminent scholars and administrators who have occupied or are occupying high positions within and outside the country. In view of its academic excellence, the Department of Botany has the distinction of being recognised by the UGC under its two programmes: (1) The Special Assistance Programme (1976) and (2) The COSIST Support Programme 1990.The Department offers teaching in three main courses at the post-graduate level viz., (1) Botany (2) Agricultural Botany and more recently introduced (3) Environmental Science With specializations of 10 areas of Botany and 3 areas of Agricultural Botany. Environmental Science has started two years P.G. Degree course from 2002 having semester system. The undergraduate programme is integrated with B.Sc. and recently started B.Sc. (Applied Science) curriculum of the Faculty of Science. The curricula are continuously updated. The ongoing research programmes emphasize diverse areas of functional, structural, applied and evolutionary Botany. The main emphasis is given on the following areas which are identified by the U.G.C. as areas of excellence:

i. Palaeobotany and Morphology.
ii. Microbiology (including Pathology, Mycology and Phycology).
iii. Plant Physiology.

There are other areas of interest like Plant Taxonomy, Plant Biodiversity, Ecology and Cytogenetics which are also attaining excellence.