Botany Department

About Department

The Department of Botany was established in 1965 with the introduction of the B.Sc. Botany program and was upgraded to a Postgraduate Department in 1979. The Department was recognized as a Research Centre in 1984. Since 1985, M.Phil. and Ph.D. programs have been offered in various fields of basic and applied plant biology. To date, 38 scholars have been awarded Ph.D. degrees, and currently 24 research scholars are pursuing doctoral programs.

Over the years, the Department has developed extensive infrastructure facilities, including a botanical garden, microbiology laboratory, plant tissue culture laboratory, herbarium unit, mushroom cultivation unit, and other advanced research facilities. Traditional rice variety germplasm is conserved and maintained by the Department.

The Department actively practices sustainable and eco-friendly initiatives such as microbial treatment of the college sewage treatment plant (STP) for wastewater recycling, terrace gardening, and honey bee rearing. The Department has signed several Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with academic institutions, NGOs, and industries, facilitating access to modern instrumentation and promoting collaborative teaching and research.

Students are provided with enriched learning experiences through hands-on training and exposure to high-quality practical knowledge. Faculty members are actively involved in research and extension activities across diverse areas of Botany, including Plant Systematics, Biodiversity and Conservation, Phytogeography, Medicinal Plants, Plant Nutrition, Forest Nursery Technology, Phytochemistry, Plant Pathology, Plant–Microbe Interaction, Plant–Bird Interaction, Plant Tissue Culture, Nanobiotechnology, and Solid and Liquid Waste Management.

The Department of Botany has an impressive research profile, with a total citation count of 1,052 based on peer-reviewed national and international publications authored by its faculty members.