A report on the observance of the International Day for Biological diversity at the Central National Herbarium, Botanical Survey of India, Howrah
The International Day for Biological diversity was celebrated at Central National Herbarium on May 22, 2016. Prof. G.G. Maity, Retd. Professor of University of Kalyani was the Chief Guest of this function. Besides, Dr. Paramjit Singh, Director, Botanical Survey of India, two professors from the University of Kalyani, namely Prof. Sankar Narayan Sinha, Head of the Botany Department, and Prof. Sobhan Kumar Mukherjee graced the occasion by their presence. Accepting our invitation, 21 P.G. students of Botany and Research Scholars from the University of Calcutta, University of Burdwan, University of Kalyani, Visva-Bharati University and Vidyasagar University attended the function.
The programme started with the welcome address by Dr. P.V. Prasanna, Scientist ‘F’ & Head of Office, Central National Herbarium. All the Guests, Director, BSI and HoO, CNH were greeted with flower bouquets by the research students of BSI. Dr. A. Pramanik, Scientist ‘E’ & HoO, AJC Bose Indian Botanical Garden spoke about the importance of International Day for Biological Diversity. In their speech, both Prof. G.G. Maity and Dr. P. Singh highlighted the importance of Biological Diversity, its sustainable utilization and conservation.
Their speech was followed by four talks by the scientists of different units of BSI, Howrah/Kolkata.
- Dr. Rajib Gogoi, Scientist ‘D’, Central National Herbarium delivered a lecture on, “Diversity of Musa species in North-East India”.
- Dr. (Mrs.) Sujana K.A., Scientist ‘C’, Central Botanical Laboratory delivered a lecture on, “Orphan crops for food and livelihood security”.
- Dr. Basant Kumar Singh, Sr. Pres. Asst., AJC Bose Indian Botanical Garden gave a talk on, “Importance of biodiversity and its services to the mankind”.
- Dr. Manas Bhaumik, Scientist ‘D’ & HoO, Industrial Section Indian Museum delivered a lecture on, “Habitat diversity and potentiality for sustainable use of plant resources by the people of Arunachal Pradesh”.
A visit was arranged to the ethnobotany gallery of the Central Botanical Laboratory and two short documentaries were also shown to the students. A drawing competition was conducted in the committee room of CNH, in which 19 students of different universities participated. All the students were given participation certificate and the winners (Ms. Pallabi Thakur – 1st, Ms. Sucharita Bhowmick – 2nd, Mr. Rabishankar Sengupta – 3rd, all the three from University of Calcutta) of the drawing competition were awarded with certificates and trophies by the Director, BSI, by the Chief Guest and two Professors of the University of Kalyani, and by the Scientists of the department.
The Scientists, Scientific /Technical staff, Research students and Post-Doctoral Fellows from various units of BSI in Howrah and Kolkata attended the function. The function was concluded by proposing a Vote of Thanks.
(V.P. PRASAD)
Scientist ‘D’- I/c
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