RONO HILLS, 23 Feb: The Rajiv Gandhi University’s (RGU) Department of Botany organized a two-day national seminar on ‘Plant taxonomy and traditional knowledge in the Himalayas and North-East India’ on 21 and 22 February through virtual mode.
Organized in collaboration with the Botanical Survey of India, Kolkata and East Himalayan Society for Spermatophyte Taxonomy (EHSST), the seminar brought together stalwarts in the field on a single platform with more than 150 participants from all over the country registering and presenting their research findings.
Botanical Survey of India Director Dr AA Mao highlighted the importance and relevance of the seminar in the biodiversity rich Himalayan region, especially the North-east India. He talked about various avenues to convert the rich biodiversity into an economy.
Speaking on the occasion, RGU Adjunct Professor and founder secretary of EHSST, Prof AP Das described the journey of the society from its inception through these years.
EHSST president and Vice-Chancellor of Mansarovar Global University, Madhya Pradesh, Prof AK Pandey expressed happiness on the research devoted to floristic diversity and stressed on the importance of molecular data on taxonomy. He cheered for the development of biodiversity cyber bank and also motivated the young generation to join the field.
RGU Pro-VC Prof Amitava Mitra elaborated that an inbuilt system in tribal life has made conservation of bio-resources possible. He also spoke on the need for in-depth study and documentation of traditional knowledge.
RGU VC Prof Saket Kushwaha lamented on the dwindling number of taxonomists and
encouraged the young participants to take up taxonomy. He suggested the organizers bring out policy documents through the seminar. He also promised to host another seminar in offline mode very soon.
During the technical session, EHSST president Prof AK Pandey spoke on the ‘Himalayan flowering plants: diversity and strategies for conservation and sustainable utilization’. The session was chaired by Prof SR Rao and co-chaired by Dr TK Paul.
Altogether, six technical sessions devoted to six sub-themes of the seminar were spread over the two days. The themes included, taxonomy, phylogeny and nomenclature; floristic diversity and conservation; medicinal plants and sustainable utilization of bio-resources; documentation and evaluation of traditional knowledge; biosystematics (traditional & modern) and bioinformatics in biodiversity studies; understanding ecosystem vis-à-vis climate change.
Prof Hui Tag, Dr S Suresh Kumar Singh, Prof PR Gajurel, Dr Debabrata Maity, and Prof Shashi B Babbar delivered lead lectures with topics ranging from ethnobotany, diversity, phytogeography to bioinformatics.
Eminent as well as young scientists received various awards instituted by the EHSST society.
Awards were given to Dr Jun Wen, Dr Rita Singh, Dr Pankaj Chetia, Dr Mayank D Dwivedi and Dr Rabindra Teron.
Dr Wen delivered the Tod F Stussey Award Lecture on the topic ‘Collections-based integrative systematics in the new age of informatics and genomics’.
The seminar concluded with a valedictory function on the second day, wherein Prof AP Das also presented the conference report.
The best oral presenter awards were given to Dr Shruti Kasana, University of Delhi; Momang Taram, RGU; Puja Singh, University of North Bengal; Jayita Biswas, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University; Birina Bhuyan, Bodoland University; Likha Rido, RGU and Damini Sharma, Mansarovar Global University.
