About the Department
Brief History:
The Department of Botany in City College started long back, in the year 1939. Eminent educationist and botanist Prof. Hemendra Chandra Mukherjee was the first Head of the Department. In 1945 the department received the affiliation from Calcutta University to introduce Honours Course in Botany for 20 (twenty) students.
The Department possesses a very long history in academic performance. A large number of proficient students have been produced by the Department, who had established themselves as crown of many institutions in different parts of the country as well as abroad.
The Department currently has six full time teachers. All of them are Ph. D degree holders. In addition, the Dept has three State Aided College teachers (SACT). The teachers are specialized in different areas of the subject and therefore, are perfectly competent to meet the demand of the learner. All the teachers, besides teaching, organize seminars and workshops.
Overview:
- Year of Establishment: 1939
- Courses Offered: Botany Honours [CBCS]
- Subject Combination: Zoology & Chemistry or Physiology
- Intake Capacity: Thirty (30)
- Number of Full Time Teaching Staff: Six (06)
- Number of State Aided Teacher: Three (03)
- Number of Non-Teaching Staff: Three (03)
- Teacher-Student Ratio: Honours – 1:5, General – 1:20
- Admission Policy: Merit based.
- Number of Laboratory: Four (04)
- Number of Class Room: Two (02)
Ex-Teachers:
Infrastructure:
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Laboratories and class Rooms
The Department of Botany has got sufficient facilities for teaching honours. There are four laboratories including one culture laboratory and one lecture room. The laboratories are well equipped to meet the demand of the honours curriculum. The teachers of the department uses following teaching aids during teaching:
- Projector (LCD, Overhead)
- Wi-fi to directly stream web pages and videos
- Charts
- Models
- Camera fitted with Microscope and connected with computer
- Permanent Slides
- Preserved and fresh specimens
- Herbarium
- Desktop, laptop and e-books
- Online platforms like Google Meet, Zoom, WhatsApp and Telegram
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Museum
The museum of the Department of Botany is unique for its collections of various botanical specimens. Here several scientific models, dry and wet preserved specimens of algae, fungi, bryophytes, pteridophytes, gymnosperms, pathological specimens and palaeobotanical specimens are displayed in a proper order. These are utilized by the respective teachers in a class. Moreover during botanical excursions many specimens are collected from different ecological habitats and the unique ones are displayed in the museum. So the museum of this department is enriched and updated every year. The botanical museum gives a first hand knowledge of the subject and this type of a visual aid creates an everlasting impression in the minds of the students. Moreover the students are also made aware of, how the specimens are collected, preserved and maintained in the museum.
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Herbarium
The herbarium is a pride of the Department of Botany. Each year the students of Botany actively participate in excursion trips and collect various plant species. Some species are kept in the Herbarium after proper treatment.
The herbarium of Botany Department serves many purposes:
- It gives an idea of the nature of vegetation of a particular area in a season.
- Examination of herbarium sheets give an idea of the range of distribution of a species, phylogeny and also the flowering and fruiting time.
- Herbarium sheets are very good study material for the students to understand the different family characters.
- Herbarium sheets become a ready reference to the future collector and research workers in the field of systematics.
- The herbarium preparation may help to check the identity of newly collected plants and may aid in teaching and may be of great value as a historical collection.
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Seminar Library
In the Department of Botany the seminar library contains about 400 text and reference books. Respective teachers are there to issue books to the students. A register is maintained to keep record of the books. Each student is allowed to keep the book with them for a week.
Seminar library is a small repository of books, which gives a constant support to the Department. So while issuing a book the teacher can suggest the particular kind of book, which the student can issue according to his/her standard. This helps the teacher to keep a track on the student’s progress. Moreover the student can clear their doubts on the spot, which they cannot avail in the main library. This builds up an interactive and free relationship between the student and the teacher. The seminar library is loaded with a variety of new edition books. So the students can get an advanced idea on the topic, which would help them to enrich their knowledge. Thus a seminar library not only provides books to the students but also accompanies precious suggestions and guidance of the teachers along with it.
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List of equipments used for teaching
| Microscopes & related equipments |
Others |
- Compound Microscopes – 50
- Field microscope (comp.) – 1
- Simple microscopes – 35
- Projection microscope – 1
- Camera Lucida – 22
- Drawing prism – 12
- Ocular micrometers – 20
- Stage micrometers – 20
- Double demonstration eye-piece – 1
|
- Inoculating chamber – 1
- Autoclave – 1
- Pressure sterilizer – 1
- Hot air oven – 2
- Hot water baths -3
- Microtomes – 2
- Colorimeter – 1
- Digital pH meter– 1
- Spectroscope – 1
- Planimeter – 1
- Clinical centrifuge – 1
- Hot plate – 1
- Stop watches – 4
- Thermometers – 10
- Weight boxes – 4
- Hand lenses – Small (13), Big (2).
- Computer with printer and scanner - 1
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| Projector |
- LCD projector - 1
- 0verhead projectors – 2
- Slide projector – 1
|
| Balance |
- Pan balances – 3
- Chainometric balance – 1
- Electronic balance (Dhona) – 1
- Digital balance – 1
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| Charts & Models |
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Distinctiveness:
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Well Balanced Faculty: The Department of Botany, City College have seven full time teachers and three SACT besides Principal, who is also a trained Plant Taxonomist. The department is distinct and different because of a well balanced faculty having specialisation with all the major areas of Botany.
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Second Undergraduate College in West Bengal where Botany Honours was introduced By the University of Calcutta as a major.
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Plant Tissue Culture and Biochemistry Laboratory: Apart from general laboratories the department is equipped with Tissue Culture and Biochemistry Laboratory.
- Unique collection of slides of Fossil Plants and extant Gymnosperms.
- Herbarium.
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Modern and specialized Instruments Equipments: SPECTROPHOTOMETER, Binocular Research Microscope with Photographic attachment. Laminar Air Flow.
- Repository of rare charts on different aspects of Botany.
- Well stocked Seminar Library including few old editions on Classical Botany.
Best Practices:
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The Department make sincere efforts to ready the students for the real world seminars through engaging them to gain latest knowledge on the topic of their choice; preparing PPT presentation; improving communication skills, acquiring good manner of putting questions and to answer the questions of other fellow participants and teachers; renewing motivation and confidence for the future ahead.
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The Department provide the students the opportunities to apply theoretical knowledge, methods and techniques of documentation, collection and preservation of specimens during field visits; exposure to unfamiliar places; interaction with the locals; help them understand about the biological resources around and their conservation status; new impression and new observation on different perspective eventually helps to create lifelong everlasting memories.
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Teachers and students of the department bring back the non biodegradable litters generated by them from the field during excursions and dispose the same at a proper areas/bins designated for such litters thus disseminate the message of cleaner and greener environment to the population of area they visited; creating a sense of biodiversity conservation.
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