The department also caters to the requirements of UG and PG programs of College of Agriculture and College of Home Science. The department has so far produced 125 M.Sc. and 65 Ph.D. scholars some of them occupying high positions at the national level. At present, there are 5 M. Sc. students and 7 Ph. D students. Most of our students are getting fellowship from ICAR and CSIR.

The department is having a highly trained and talented faculty that consists of four Professors, three Sr. Plant Physiologists, and one Sr. Botanist-cum-Superintendent Botanical Garden. In addition, there are five Sr. Plant Physiologists and three Plant Physiologists posted in various related departments of College of Agriculture and FST supporting research. The department has a Botanical Garden sprawled over an area of 10.5 acre with rich biodiversity. The department has done pioneering work in conserving the indigenous local species of plants and also introduction of exotic species from other places. Various native and exotic trees, shrubs, herbs, climbers, aquatic plants, cacti and succulents have been grown and arranged in taxonomical order for imparting knowledge to our students as well as general public. Flower shows and Bonsai making trainings (Photo. 5) are organized from time to time.   

Designation, Name and Specialization of the Faculty Members

 Course Catalogue

Achievements of the Faculty:

          Most of the faculty members have visited foreign countries to attain advanced expertise in various fields of botanical and plant physiological research. The faculty has written 19 books and 3 Practical Manuals. Three Professor Emeritus were awarded by ICAR. Research work carried out by the PG students and faculty has been published in the form of 425 research and review papers. Our teachers / scientists bagged 17 research projects from various funding agencies like ICAR and CSIR. Recently, research projects worth Rs. 57 lacs have been sanctioned to the department by MOEF and Ministry of Water Resources, New Delhi.

Awards and Recognitions:

    Hari Om Ashram award for team research, Rafi Ahmed Kidwai award and NAAS Fellow were awarded to Dr. I. S. Sheoran.

   National award of Academy for Advancement in Agricultural Sciences (AAAS-senior) year 2003 and Bharat Jyoti award- 2006 were awarded to Dr. A. S. Nandwal (Photo. 1)

    Most of the faculty members are Fellow of Indian Society for Plant Physiology and Indian Botanical Society. Drs. S. Bharati, M. S. Kuhad and C. L. Goswami have been Vice-President of ISPP. Recently Dr. A. S. Nandwal and Dr. H. R. Dhingra have been elected as Vice-President and Member Editorial Board, IJPP, respectively.

Infrastructural Development:

i)    The department has developed 20 salinity micro plots to determine phyto-remediating potential of halophytic flora (Photo. 2) and 24 lysimeter have been installed in field to determine the transpirational potential of trees having importance in bio-drainage (Photo. 3).

ii)   Experimental farm spreads over 25 acres has been developed to evaluate bio-drainage potential of trees to improve waterlogged soils.

iii)  Department has installed drip-irrigation system at  vegetable research field to optimize the transplantation of cotton in saline area.(Photo. 4)

 Thrust Areas of Research: 

i)        Phyto-remediation of saline soils by cultivating hyper-accumulators of ions.

ii)      Enhancing sustainable crop productivity under changing environmental conditions.

iii)    Heavy metal toxicity in vegetable/crop plants and phytoremediation.

iv)    Raising economically important and medicinal plants using tissue culture techniques.

v)      Exploration of reproductive biology of crop plants under stress conditions, micropropagation of medicinal /ornamental plants, plant ecology and eco-physiological studies in medicinal/ tree species of arid and semi-arid regions.

 Salient Research Achievements:

i)        Developed a transplantation technique to raise cotton under saline field conditions. It is being further optimized using drip irrigation and demonstrated on the farmer’s field.

ii)       Field experiments have lead to identification of morpho-physiological traits like specific leaf area as an index for identifying low and high yielding hybrid bajra genotypes.

         Similarly other physiological traits i.e. high photosynthetic and N₂ fixation efficiency and fruiting zone length were included in the variety release proposal of chickpea variety HC-5 at state and ICAR levels.

iii)      Identified P-uptake efficient pigeonpea genotypes which can give farmers economic benefits by saving on application of chemical P-fertilizers. P-uptake efficient genotypes were also water logging resistant.

iv)     Among vegetables cultivated on the farmers field using untreated sewage water irrigation, cauliflower, spinach, radish and carrot accumulated high levels of cadmium, nickel and lead – highly toxic to human health.

v)       Reproductive biology of pulses and oilseeds has been found to be adversely affected under salinity and heavy metal (HM) stress by reducing flower production and male fecundity through decreased production, viability, germination and tube growth of pollen produced. Reduced seed yield was due to decrease in the number of ovules, abortion of fertilized ovules more particularly of the stylar ones and reduction in the size of the surviving seeds. Foliar application of BAP and NAA successfully induced seed set of stylar ovules in chickpea.

vi)      Pre-conditioning stress treatments have been found to improve callogenic responses of recalcitrant plant species like maize. Salt stress tolerant callus lines and biochemical and molecular basis of salt tolerance in Jatopha curcus (Biodiesel plant) has been worked out.

vii)    Protocol for micro-propagation of some the important medicinal plants like Solanum nigrun, Cardiospermum helicabacum, Salvadora oleoides, Chlorophytum borivilianum etc. has been perfected and further studies are in progress.

viii)    Studies on antioxidant mechanism in pigeonpea under boron-salt toxicity have revealed that H₂O₂ and glutathione constitute the major antioxidants in wheat.

ix)      Leucaena leucocephala showed better tolerance to drought and salinity than Albizzia lebbek and both these species were more sensitive to chloride than sulphate salinity.

x)      Isabgol (Plantago ovata) plants exposed to drought at 105 DAS revealed best compensatory growth after release of stress w.r.t. dry matter and seed yield while plants receiving stress at 45 DAS and 45 DAS+105 DAS exhibited poor compensatory growth.

Package and Practices:

i)        Identified drought resistance and wide range of thermo-tolerance variety of arhar (Cajanus cajan ) i.e, H-77-217

ii)      Application of NAA can reduce boll shedding in American varieties of cotton.

Future Projections:

i)        Some plants like Suaeda fructicosa, Salsola barisoma, Atriplex species have been tested for their ability to remove various ions from the soil at the pot and microplot level. The department plans to extend the work further by initiating biosalt production from the hyper-accumulators grown in saline soils.

ii)      The department is initiating techniques of in situ localization of ROS (reactive oxygen species) in leaves. These techniques can be used as bio-indicators of stress resistance/susceptibility and deficiency of macro-elements in crops.

iii)    Selection of stress tolerant lines by in vitro methods and their evaluation by physiological and molecular basis is important areas of investigation which will provide not only stress tolerant crop plants but will also decipher the mechanism of stress tolerance at the cell level.  Micro propagation of ornamental, medicinal and under utilized plants and studies on reproductive biology of crop plants are the other thrust areas.

iv)    Biodrainage of waterlogged soils by tree species.

 Training/Symposium/Conferences Organized:

      Organized 4 day Third Indian Palynological conference on “Palynology in Crop Production & Improvement” in September 21-23, 1981.

      Organized 3 day symposium of Plant Physiology (1984) in association with Indian Society for Plant Physiology.