Department of Botany

The Department of Botany July 1921 saw the golden dawn on the horizon of Lucknow as the city of Nawabs was gifted Lucknow University and Botany Department. Right from its very beginning the Department had devotional patronage of luminary like Professor Birbal Sahni, FRS, who had earlier briefly served at Benaras Hindu University. He was ably assisted by untiring efforts of Drs S.K. Mukerjee, S.N. Das Gupta and S.K. Pande. Professor Sahni’s vision and stupendous efforts and insight zeal brought this Department and the University not only name and fame but it became an international hub especially of Palaeobotanical researches. The teaching faculty of these Departments (Botany and Geology) with its unabashed and sustainable efforts had provided a concrete base for teaching and research of almost all the disciplines which is so well reflected by very well established and renowned units of Algology, Bryology, Plant Breeding and Cytogenetics, Mycology and Plant Pathology, Plant Nutrition, Plant Virology and Palaeobotany. The academic output of this Department has brought laurels, reputation and excellence. The rich traditions and strongly knitted academic fabric as laid down by Late Professor Sahni in 1921 was nurtured further by his successors Professors S.N. Das Gupta (1949-61), S.K. Pandey (1961), A.R. Rao(1961-63), G.S. Verma (1963-64), S.C. Agarwala (1964-79), B.S. Trivedi (1979-83), B.N. Prasad (1983), C.P. Sharma (1983-94), N.K.Mehrotra (1994-99), H.N.Verma (1999-2002), C. Chatterjee (2002-2003) and S.C.Srivastava, Dinesh Kumar, R.R. Singh (present Hea).

Starting with a handful of teachers under the worthy stewardship of Prof. Sahni in 1921, at present this Department has a very strong faculty comprising of 10 Professors, 13 Readers and 2 Lecturers, representing nearly all the specialties of Botany.

The Department, headed by Professor R.R. Singh, offers B.Sc, M.Sc, M.Phil. and Ph.D. courses in Botany. The PhD programme is extended to Lucknow based research institutes of the CSIR, DST, ICAR, and the ICGEB at New Delhi and the IRRI, Manila. Besides offering courses in Botany, the Department also offers two four-semester Masters Programmes in Plant Science and Environmental Science. In association with Academic Staff College of the University, the Department also offers Refresher Courses for in-service teachers of Botany from different Universities and their associated colleges. Currently several research projects are successfully running which have been financially supported from time to time by the UGC, ICAR, DBT, DST, DOE, USPL-480-ICAR, UPCST, UPCAR, NATP, etc. In 1979, the Department was identified as UGC Department for Special Assistance. Thrust areas identified in the IVth phase are Bryology, Plant Physiology and Nutrition, Cytology and Plant genetics, and Plant Virology. In 1990 it also qualified for support for the development of infrastructure under the COSIST programme. Fiscal support received under these programs, as also under research projects supported from time to time by different agencies helped the Department in generating facilities for advanced research. The Department is now identified as the DST-FIST sponsored Department of Botany.