By Rabish Chandra

Sharing the knowledge of the plant world

 Indian Botanists, an interdisciplinary and multi column plant sciences portal, aims to share and spread knowledge about the many facets of plant sciences. It is an initiative to provide a platform for sharing information regarding interdisciplinary areas and in newly developing areas of basic and advanced plant biology, and make this information available in the public domain (all the articles, data, and information are open access).

The information available in Indian Botanists covers most areas of basic and advanced plant sciences— broadly speaking, from botany, agriculture and food security, forestry and conservation, ecology and environment, medicinal plants, to niche areas such as evolutionary biology, phytogeography, phylogeny, taxonomy, genetics, morphology, physiology, developmental biology, cell biology, molecular biology, biochemistry, biophysics, bioinformatics, systems biology, research, as well as, teaching aids for the above mentioned and other allied disciplines.

Members of Indian Botanists come from various parts of country and abroad. It consists of academicians, entrepreneurs, technocrats, economists, researchers, school teachers, farmers, students, and so on—all of who have expertise in different disciplines of plant sciences. Young botanists from colleges and universities act as volunteers who help in achieving our aims and objectives.

It also assists and partners in conducting seminars, symposiums and conferences related to plant sciences, often by volunteering to be the online media partner for such events. Apart from that, Indian Botanists publishes scientific literature in the form of articles, photos, sketches, video or any other compatible electronic form. It intends to publish thoughts, opinions, commentaries as well as research findings in the near future.

Further, for students preparing for National Eligibility Test (NET) and Junior Research Fellowships conducted by different national body such as University Grant Commission- Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (UGC-CSIR), Agriculture Scientists Recruitment Board (ASRB), Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Indian Botanists provides information and guides them accordingly with regard to such examinations. They can undertake free test series, download selected study materials and previous years’ question papers, and ask specific queries to our team members. We also publish interviews of successful candidates as inspirations for the aspirants.

Team members from Indian Botanists help in preparing herbariums before it is sent to Botanical Survey of India for identification/authentication. Indian Botanists intends to conduct a short term awareness course in this regard, which will help common citizens in identifying and knowing the importance of plants in their surroundings.

Apart from the above, Indian Botanists also intends to sponsor awards and rewards for young botanists who bring outstanding contributions to plant sciences. Indian Botanists aims to conserve our plant based natural heritage by deepening the knowledge of the plant world and spreading public awareness about the value that plants bring to our lives. It is a platform for discussions and interactions with fellow botanists, as well as, plant lovers.

The author is Scientific Curator cum Scientific Moderator, Indian Botanists