Research Projects

In the present state of our knowledge, India is represented by 953 taxa, belonging to 141 genera, 59 families, 17 orders, and four classes from two phyla of Liverworts and hornworts diversity (Singh et al., 2016; Majumdar & Dey, 2021). Scattered work on the diversity has been done by various workers but complete work of the state of West Bengal is still pending as there are many areas yet to be unearthed. One such area still unexplored is the virgin forest of Neora Valley National Park. The significance of Neora Valley National Park was recognized in May 2009 and has been included in the tentative list of World Heritage sites (UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 2009). According to the mandate mentioned in the Draft National Forest Policy 2018 and progressive thinking, it is the need of the hour to access the diversity within the National park to document the species richness and different bryogeographical climatic zones within the National park. The applicant (PI) will start from the scrap as no work regarding Liverworts and Hornworts have been initiated previously within the National park. In the past few years with limited resources, the species representation in India has been increased in a greater extent. As India is one of the treasures of germplasms, the applicant will also be in quest of a few undiscovered taxa in unexplored parts of the National park, thus accomplishing the representation of their diversity, occurrence and species richness. In this context the present proposal is aimed to undertake morpho-taxonomic studies of liverworts and hornworts to provide a comprehensive account with detailed description, up-to-date nomenclature, authentic identification, distribution and SEM study of spores (wherever available). Morpho-taxonomic studies has not been proposed or initiated previously in the Neora Valley National park. The study is intended to be executed in Scottish Church College a renowned institution of 194 years legacy. It is needless to mention that this proposed activity will provide support to continue research activity of the PI unearthing curious plants and sharing knowledge about plants. In addition, the outcome of this work will undoubtedly generate the scientific information for the students and researchers who are studying on this lesser known group of plants.