Botany

ABOUT THE DEPARTMENT

The Department of Botany is one of the oldest departments of the college which started in 1951 with the introduction of first batch of Natural Science in the Intermediate. In 1958 three year Degree course in Botany was started. Prof. C. K. Devassy (1958-61) was the first Head of the Department followed by Prof. P. J. Abraham (1961-85) and others. The department has been offering Postgraduate programme since 1968. The department was elevated to the status of Research Centre of University of Calicut since 2014. More than 25 eminent faculty members have served the department since its inception. The department undertakes seminars, conferences, workshops, student internships and exchange programmes. The department has to its credit addition of nine new taxa to the plant kingdom. The department organizes national seminar ‘Species the Passion’ annually in connection with World Environment Day which acts as a platform for introduction of budding taxonomists and their new taxa.

PROGRAMMES OFFERED

• B.Sc. Botany
• M.Sc. Botany
• Ph.D. Botany

VALUE ADDED COURSES

Certificate course in Horticulture (for UG students)

Certificate course in Plant Tissue Culture (for PG students)

DISTINCTIVENESS OF THE DEPARTMENT

DST-FIST supported research laboratory

DBT-STAR supported UG laboratory

Digital Flora of the St. Thomas College campus

STC Indexed Herbarium with 2000+ digitalized herbarium sheets

EXTENSION ACTIVITIES

• Biodiversity Registry Preparation: The department has been engaged in the preparation of biodiversity inventories and digitalization of gardens (QR coded) for various academic institutions.
• Environmental Restoration and Conservation: The department has been involved in various environmental conservation activities like protection and restoration of endangered plants, bio monitoring of wetland ecosystem, post flood assessment of water bodies etc.

.