Department of Botany
Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Khalsa College
University of Delhi, Delhi-7
EXPERIENCE:
Experience of teaching undergraduate classes in
Botany for nearly 30 years in University of Delhi. Courses taught include Plant
Ecology, Angiosperms Taxonomy, Plant Anatomy, Plant Embryology, Genetics and
Economic Botany. Was also given teaching assignments for postgraduate classes at
University of Kashmir between 1968 and 1975 having taken classes on Forest
Ecology, Modern Trends in Plant Taxonomy.
Joined S. G. T. B. Khalsa College, Delhi on August 4,
1975. Promoted as Lecturer in Reader’s grade on August 4, 1985 and designated
as Reader on January 1, 1986.
1. U. G. C. Research Scholarship from 12th September 1969 to 11th September for Ph. D. project ‘Floristic Composition of Harwan Woodland: Phytosociological Study’. Listed about 660 species, reported a number of new records for Kashmir and India, solved identity of a number of taxa and described five new species. Made detailed vegetational analysis.
2. C. S. I. R. Senior Research Fellowship from 3rd January 1973 to 20th April 1975 to study distribution and productivity of herbaceous elements in Kashmir forests. A detailed analysis of forest communities was made. Detailed floristic study enabled publication of numerous floristic records and understanding of nomenclature of many taxa.
3. C. S. I. R. Post-doctoral Fellowship from 21st April 1997 to 1st August 1975 for further continuation of above project. Major portion of the thesis and subsequent work was published in the form of a book ‘Forest Flora of Srinagar and the plants of neighbourhood’ in 1976.
During
and subsequent to the doctoral work undertook extensive explorations of
different parts of Kashmir valley and difficult terrain of Ladakh desert and
results of these were published in the form of several papers in various
national and international journals. Built up a personal collection of more than
8,000 herbarium specimens partly deposited in Kashmir University and largely
donated to the herbarium of S. G. T. B. Khalsa College, Delhi. These and other
specimens were critically examined by visiting: Herbarium of Forest Research
Institute DehraDun, Central National Herbarium Calcutta, Herbarium of National
Botanical Research Institute Lucknow, Herbarium University of Chandigarh, and
Herbarium BSI Northern Division DehraDun.
Last
30 years have been largely devoted to the study of specimens brought from
Kashmir and additionally those collected from Delhi and different parts of
India. The nomenclatural data is being constantly updated and periodically
published in various journals. The material is being compiled for revision of
the Flora of Kashmir and Flora of Delhi.