Sirsi: College of Forestry receives prestigious award

Sirsi: The College of Forestry here has been awarded the highest award given in forest research by the The Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education, Dehradun an autonomous organisation of the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India.

It is the first time that the College has received such an award.

There are 30 forestry colleges in the country. The award is given to the one with most accomplishment in research. An award prize of Rs 25,000 will also given at an event at a later date in Dehradun.

College’s research activities, collaborations with various research institutes in the country, college students’ forest conservation work, wildlife conservation work, college staff’s research on external grant, published research articles, national and international accreditation to the staff, the contributions made by the staff to forest survey, forest map preparation, research on the utilization of the Western Ghats, the discovery of an anti-cancer drug from the red cedar tree found in the Western Ghats, the cultivation of red cedar tree in the Uttara Kannada district, preparing a forest map of the Uttara Kannada district using GIS technology, research on water bodies and soil carbon, management of disease and pest infestation in forest trees research on biofuels, development of biofuel varieties, conservation and development of Appmedi genus tree, improvement of agroforestry model, forest seed conservation, development of forest gin banks etc. are some of the activities conducted by the College for which it was honoured with the award.

Additionally, the award was also given due to other awards received by the college’s staff such as the Carl Zeiss Award for Wildlife Conservation to Dr Sridhar Bhat, R Vasudeva who is a recipient of the National Teacher Award from the Indian Science Academy, New Delhi and and international Patent to his name.