Surendranath College

Over the years, Botany has shown enormous gain in information and applications owing to tremendous inputs from research in all its aspects. With global recognition of the need for conservation, field plant biologists have contributed significantly in assessing plant diversity. Taxonomists have explored newer dimensions for the classification of plants. New insights have been gained in functional and structural aspects of plant development by utilizing novel tools and techniques for botanical research. Challenging areas of teaching and research have emerged in ecology and reproductive biology. Concern for ever increasing pollution and climate change is at its highest than ever before. Today plant science is a fusion of the traditional components with the modern aspects of biochemistry, molecular biology and biotechnology. Keeping these advancements in view, a revision of the curriculum at the undergraduate level is perfectly timed. The carefully-crafted course structure has taken care of different aspects of plant science, namely plant diversity, physiology, biochemistry, molecular biology, reproduction, anatomy, taxonomy, ecology, economic botany and the impact of the environment on the growth and development of plants. All these aspects have been given due weightage over the six semesters. It is essential for the undergraduate students to acquaint themselves with various tools and techniques for exploring the world of plants up to the sub- cellular level. A paper on this aspect is proposed to provide such an opportunity to the students before they engage themselves with the learning of modern tools and techniques in plant science. Keeping the employment entrepreneurship in mind, applied courses have also been introduced. These courses shall provide the botany students hands on experience and professional inputs. On the whole, the curriculum is a source of a lot of information and is supported by rich resource materials. It is believed that a student graduating in Botany with the new CBCS curriculum will be a complete botanist at Honours level.