EARLY TIMES REPORT
SAMBA, Jan 7: The Department of Botany, Central University of Jammu (CUJ) organized a day-long National webinar on topic “Changing paradigms in Plant taxonomy” to mark the 75th glorious celebration of “Amrit Mahotsav”. On the occasion, Prof. Sanjeev Jain, Vice Chancellor, Central University of Jammu was the chief Patron and Prof. B.S. Bhau Dean, School of Life Sciences and Head, Department of Botany, Central University was the Patron. On the occasion, Dr. Mudassir Ahmed Bhat under the capacity of organizing secretary made an introductory speech and proceeded with the morning session.
In the webinar, series of keynote speeches were presented by the field plant taxonomists on various aspects of plant identification, utilization and conservation of this discipline. In the morning session, Prof. A.K Pandey talked in length about the importance of plant taxonomy in the era of genomics. Also, highlighting the present scenario of Indian floral diversity explained the importance of plant conservation and bio-prospecting plant resources in socio-economic development. Prof. D. Narasimhan stressed the need for scientific intervention for conservation of plant diversity and the threatened discipline Botany. In the evening session, Dr R.K Choudhary while addressing the historical background and evolution of plant field taxonomy, delivered a defining lecture on changing paradigms in plant taxonomy nowadays.
Proceedings of the technical sessions were handled by Dr. Samantha Vaishnavi, Dr. Vikas Srivastava and Dr. Pratibha Lalotra. Many eminent professors, scholars and students were part of the webinar. In his concluding remarks, Prof B.S. Bhau highlighted the objectives of the webinar and explained that such webinars would not only accelerate the different plant conservation strategies, but also help students know more about the basics of taxonomy, identification, conservation and its utilization. Also, on theme “Biodiversity and conservation of nature” Monika Sharma, Mohd Daler and Harshita Sharma were given 1st prizes in photography and e-poster competition respectively. E-certificates were also provided to all the participants. |
