Department of Botany

About the Department

Mrs. Sally Lewis joined this department in 1939 and she subsequently became the Head of the combined departments of Botany and Biology. In 1958 the B.Sc. Pass classes in Botany, Physics, Mathematics, Chemistry and Zoology were started. In 1960 the combined departments of Botany and Biology split into two distinct departments as Botany and Zoology and these were shifted to the new Science Building. In 1961 the Honours course in Botany started with three students.

The Postgraduatation course in Botany was commenced in 2005 with 20 students under the ambit of University of Calcutta. PG students carry out in-house Projects and review work for partial fulfillment of M.Sc. degree in their special paper. Projects are carried out in the Department of Botany, Ballygunge Science College, University of Calcutta, CRIJAF, Rice Research Institute, Chinsurah, Department of Microbiology, St. Xaviers College, West Bengal Biodiversity Board. Presently the intake capacity for PG Course is Twenty-one. From the session 2015-2016, the PG Department has introduced the Semester System of evaluation. There are four special papers presently running i.e Cytogenetics and Genomics; Plant Physiology and Biochemistry; Molecular Biology and Plant Biotechnology; Plant Taxonomy and Biosystematics.

Infrastructure

• The Department has been provided with computers and internet facility.
• Class rooms with ICT facility: LCD Projector oriented teaching facility available in 6 rooms
• The Central Library has 3910 books. The Departmental Library has 300 books; Book Bank has 150 books and there are 10 Journals.
• Laboratories: Plant Biotechnology (2), Molecular Biology (1),General lab (2), Tissue culture (1)
• Available instruments in the department: Gel documentation system, UV/Vis spectrophotometer, colorimeter, PCR, Centrifuge, Double distillation plant, Laminar air flow etc
• Herbarium: A herbarium is present in the Department which consists of plant specimens belonging to more than 100 families of Angiosperms. Besides, there are pteridophytes and gymnosperms specimens as well.
• Medicinal Plant Garden: A medicinal plant garden consisting of about 40 plant species is present in front of the Chandramukhi Bhavan, maintained by the department.
  
   

Research and Extension Activities

• Dr. Ashok Kr. Das is Interested in Taxonomy of Leaf Inhabiting Fungi, Biopesticides, Biological Control, Aeromycoflora.
•  Dr. Dipayan Chattopadhyay's area of Research is Cytogenetics-study of somatic and meiotic chromosomes; measurement of in-situ nuclear DNA content, plant tissue culture.
• Dr. Seemanti Ghosh is interested in ex situ conservation and genetic diversity of indigenous medicinal plants in terms of polymorphism and investigation of genetic diversity and evolutionary relationships of economically important plants of India with the aid of molecular cytogenetic tools.
• Dr. Saswati Laha, specializes in Molecular biology of plant stress tolerance particularly salinity stress tolerance and accumulation of higher polyamines. She is also interested in genetic diversity of Phaseolus vulgaris and also in in-vitro conservation of medicinally important plant.
• Dr. Sritama Mukherjee is presently working on plant abiotic stress tolerance. She is also interested in exploration of endangered /medicinally important plant species and their conservation through in vitro regeneration.
• As part of Course curriculum of UG and PG, the Department organizes educational tour for the students to acquaint them with the floral diversity and vegetation of different Phytogeographical areas. Excursion to Guwahati, Shillong, Mawsynram was arranged in 2013 and in 2015 students were taken to Dooars, Lava and adjoining areas and in October of the same year to Shimla, Kulu and Manali. Every year students also visit the Central National Herbarium and Acharya Jagadish Chandra Indian Botanic Garden, Howrah. Students also visited the Medicinal Plant Garden and Tissue Culture Laboratory at Neempith and the State Pharmacopoeial Laboratory and Pharmacy for Indian Medicine in 2015.
• Eminent speakers like Dr. Aparajita Chatterjee , Post Doctoral Research Associate, Boston University, USA; Prof. Tarak Mohan Das, Former Professor, Dept of Botany C.U; Prof. N. D. Paria, Prof., C.U; Dr. Niranjan Bhattarcharya, Scientist, CSTM, Kolkata; Dr. Nandita Basu, Director, Scientist, CSTM, Kolkata have enlighted the students in Departmental Seminars hich are held time to time in the Department. Recently, Dr. Mandira Mukherjee, Head of the Department, Department of Medical Biotechnology, Calcutta Schol of Tropical Medicine delivered a seminar lecture on 'Genomics to Proteomics: A Bioinformatical approach' in 2015.
• Dr. Smita Ray is interested in studying polymorphism of medicinal plants by cytological and molecular biological techniques as well as biotechnological approach to obtain secondary metabolites from medicinal plants.
•  As part of Course curriculum of UG and PG, the Department organizes educational tour for the students to acquaint them with the floral diversity and vegetation of different Phytogeographical areas. Excursion to Kerala, Kalimpong, Dooars, and adjoining areas was arranged for PG students in 2016 and 2017 respectively. Excursion to Darjeeling and Purulia was arranged for UG students in 2016 and 2017 respectively. Every year students also visit the Central National Herbarium and Acharya Jagadish Chandra Indian Botanic Garden, Howrah. Local excursions are also arranged in College campus, Saltlake, New Town and adjoining areas.
• Eminent speakers like Dr. Aparajita Chatterjee , Post Doctoral Research Associate, Boston University, USA; Prof. Tarak Mohan Das, Former Professor, Dept of Botany C.U; Prof. N. D. Paria, Prof., C.U; Dr. Niranjan Bhattacharya, Scientist, CSTM, Kolkata; Dr. Nandita Basu, Director, Scientist, CSTM, Dr. Mandira Mukherjee, Head of the Department, Department of Medical Biotechnology, Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine, Kolkata have enlighted the students in Departmental Seminars which are held time to time in the Department. Dr. Abhijeet Bandyopadhyay, Associate Professor, Department of Botany, University of Burdwan delivered a seminar lecture on "Tinkering Secondary Metabolism through in vitro manipulation" in 2016. A Workshop was organised on 'Herbarium Techniques and Plant Nomenclature' from 4th to 5th May 2017 in collaboration with Central National Herbarium, Shibpur, Howrah for the PG semII students of the department. Dr. Pratip Kumar Palit, Former Principal Scientist, CRIJAF delivered a seminar lecture on :A journey from nothing to everything on 7th May, 2018.
• 1st Sanghamitra Sanyal Memorial Lecture was delivered "Science and Entrepreunership as a tool to ensure Global Sustainibility" on13th February, 2018 by Dr. Deborshi De, CEO Smart Management Consultancy and founder Director of Vedantic Organic Research Foundation & Vedant Agrobiotech Ltd. West Bengal.
• A National Seminar on "Urban Diversity : Documentation and Conservation"was organized in collaboration with West Bengal Biodiversity Board on 6th & 7th March, 2018.
   

Departmental Prizes/Scholarships

• Giridranath Mitra Memorial Prize: Two Prizes For standing first in Botany Honours and for securing highest marks in Botany General Examination.
• Hemaprova Bose Memorial Prize: Awarded to the student who stands first in Botany Honurs.
• Maya Mitra Memorial Prize: Awarded for the best dissertation in M.Sc Examination.
• Nityananda Sarma Memorial Prize: Awarded to student who secures first position in M.Sc Examination.
• S.N Sengupta Memorial Prize: Awarded to student who secures first position in M.Sc Examination.

Students Section

• The Department encourages the students to pursue higher Education and research. Students are pursuing their M.Sc. in several reputed universities all over India. Also, they are involved in different Ph.D programmes in the country and abroad.
• Swarnali Dey stood second in the B.Sc. final examination, Calcutta University, 2017.
• Students participate in several co-curricular activities in Annual Fest of the College, Aalap and have won several prizes. They are also involved in NSS of the College.

Student participation in Seminars and exhibitions outside College:

All PG Sem III students presented three posters in the International Conference on "The green planet: past, present and future", 21st- 23rd December, 2016 at Department of Botany, University of Calcutta. PG Sem III students participated in the International Seminar on "Frontiers in Biological Sciences", 30th December, 2017 at St. Xavier's College, Kolkata. Five students of PG Sem II, 2018 have participated in a workshop on "Advances in Biological Techniques", November, 2017 at Raja Peary Mohan College, Uttarpara. Prarthana Chatterjee and Rittika Roy of PG Sem II, 2018 have presented poster in the National Symposium on "Facets of chemistry in materials and biology", 16th- 17th February, 2018 at St. Xavier's College, Kolkata.

Student's seminar:
Seminars are conducted every year by UG and PG students on different topics of their choice with relevance to the subject.
 

Studentships/Fellowships:

Two students of PG Sem IV, Ananya Mukherjee and Antara Banerjee are recipients of Indira Gandhi Single Girl Child Scholarship. Two students of PG Sem IV, Sudipta Sadhukhan and Lusi Halder are recipients of Post Matric Scholarship to Sc/ST/OBC students.

Excursions:

• Accompanied by departmental teachers, PG Semester II went for an excursion to Kalimpong, Dooars, and adjoining areas in February, 2017 and UG II went to Darjeeling in November, 2016. In November 2017, UG II went to Purulia. PG Semester II students went for an excursion to Lava, Rishop, Jaldapara Dooars, and adjoining areas in April, 2018.
• An educational tour for all students and faculties was organised at Nalbon (Bhojerhat) in December 2017.
• Excursion to A.J.C. Bose Botanical Garden, Shibpur, Howrah was organised for PG Semester II, UG II and UG (General) students on 17th January, 2018.
   

Syllabus :

UG: http://www.caluniv.ac.in/CBCS/UG-Botany.pdf

PG: Syllabus distribution 2015

       M.Sc syllabus in botany final

Important Links :

Links to study material/websites/fellowships:

http://www.inspire-dst.gov.in/scholarship.html

http://www.csirhrdg.res.in

http://www.gate.iisc.ernet.in

http://bsi.gov.in

http://www.tifr.res.in

http://www.bsip.res.in

http://www.boseinst.ernet.in

http://www.scholarshipsinindia.com

http://www.nii.res.in

http://www.iisc.ernet.in

http://www.icrisat.org

http://www.nipgr.res.in

http://www.du.ac.in/du

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Department News

PG Sem-II and Sem-IV classes are continuing in the summer vacation 2018 according to scheduled routine. PG examinations will be held during June-July 2018.
PG Sem-I and Sem-III classes was held during the autumn vacation according to scheduled routine.

Schedule for PG Sem II and Sem IV Examination in Botany, 2018

Invigilators are requested to arrange for substitutes in case they are unavailable
Invigilators are requested to report 15 mins before commencement of examination.

Results :

Under Graduate

Post Graduate

Seminars :