Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences: An Overview of Recent Advances and Developments

Abstract

The Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany was
established in the year 1946 with the overall objective
of deciphering the evolutionary history of plant
kingdom through the study of fossil plants. The credit
for this great accomplishment goes to Prof. Birbal
Sahni himself, after whom this unique centre of
research was named after his untimely demise. Earlier
renowned Professor Sir Albert Charles Seward had
initiated Late Prof. Sahni into the science of
palaeobotany at Cambridge University and recognized
the potential of the then young Sahni. Subsequently
at one point, Prof. Seaward advised the Geological
Survey of India to send the plant fossils in its collection
to Birbal Sahni, then based at University of Lucknow,
instead of sending them to the UK. Studies on plant
fossils thus systematically began in India in 1921, and
during the next quarter of a century,