Dictionary of Biology

Dr. P.K. Gupta did his M.Sc. (Ag.) Soil Science from University of Udaipur, Udaipur in 1980. He obtained Ph.D. degree from Rajasthan Agricultural university, Bikaner in the field of soil fertility during the year 1992. Dr. Gupta started his career as lecturer in Soil Science at University of Udaipur. During his service career he has worked as Asstt. Professor, Associate professor and Head Department of Soil Science, College of Agriculture, Bikaner, Professor Soil science, ARS, Kota. He has also served Rajasthan Agriculture Drainage research Project funded by CIDA as a consultant. At present Dr. Gupta is Zonal Director research at Agricultural research Station (Maharana Pratap university of Agriculture & technology). Kota. Dr. Gupta has published more than 50 research papers and technical articles in various journals and magazines of national and international repute. He has also written books on, Vermicompositing for Sustainable Agriculture; Soil, Plant, water and fertilizer Analysis and a Handbook of Soil fertilizer and Manure.

Prabhat Kumar Hajra (b. January 28, 1940) received his early education at Sekenderpur, a village in Hooghly District of West Bengal and graduation from Calcutta University.  He obtained Masters Degree in Botany from Guahati University and Ph.D. degree from the same university.  From 1961 to 1992 he worked in Central National Herbarium, Calcutta, Eastern Circle, Shillong, and Northern Circle, Dehradun of Botanical Survey of India in different capacities.  He established the Sikkim Himalayan Circle of Botanical Survey of India.  He joined the Ministry of Environment and Forest, Government of India as Director Biosphere Reserve and worked during the period 1992-1993.  HE then rejoined Botanical Survey of India as Director in 1993 and retired on supre-annuation in 1998.  Since 1998 he is involved in a project sponsored jointly by the Department of Space and Biotechnology, Government of India as one of the collaborators.  He has authored manmy publications of botanical interest such as Plant wealth of Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve, Botany of Kaziranga and Manas, Brahmakamal and its allies etc.  He has also edited a large number of books on the Flora of India.  He is the author of over 100 publications in various scientific journals.  During his intensive field survey all over India, he discovered numerous plant species that are new to science.  He has also extensively toured all over the world in connection to his scientific pursuit.  He is the author of several popular books in English as well as Hindi.