Pankaj Ji I am very much agree with you. Problems are many with Indian Workers. When we started rather decided to start some work on floristic elements of Haryana, I searched all 3 big libraries of Haryana ie HAU Hisar, KU Kurukshetra and MDU Rohtak, I could not find anything specific to local flora even Flora of Haryana there. Even either there was nothing like herbaria in any university or if there , not accessible to even scholars of the same deptt.
Funding!!!!!!! Yes a great problem... In last two years we have surveyed most parts of the Panipat, Karnal, Kurukshetra Yamunanagar Ambala, Panchkula, jind and Sonipat District of Haryana, Totally on our own expenses. No funding from anywhere. Even we are not allowed to have Duty leave from colleges. Because what Govt thinks is that we are only there for taking classes, do Election Duty, Census Duty, Examination Duty, Paper marking and so many other jobs. Not a single hour concession in a week is there to active researchers in any college of Haryana. Still many persons are working even after taking 4-5 classes of 45 minutes each daily. In such circumstances how we can expect error free research from them. And i think same is the scenario all over India. I cant forget an instance when one of my research scholar friend was asked to get an attendance certificate by our Chairman (of Botany Deptt KUK) for a week visit to their research Area. He/we all fail to understand from whom we should get an attendance certificate that the concerned person has visited this area/that village. One Thing More Important before saying "I AM VERY SORRY TO SAY THIS" "The persons who are just finding mistakes in work of others work, What they are contributing to spread knowledge of Taxonomy to a common fellow researchers. No doubt they are doing well for their ownself. But have they shared their knowledge, their resources, old literature they have with them or in their deptt or anything which can be useful for other fellow workers also.I have personally faced big problems in big institutions like BSI Northern Circle Library and Herbaria. I found nobody to help me there to get xerox of some papers. Even purchasing of ZSI and BSI publication is a big job in itself. You can get all publication with BPSMPS Dehradoon but you will get nothing in the office of BSI Northern Circle One more example- How many members of efloraofindia particularly from University deptts and big research Institutes of India are contributing to efloraindia. Except a few neglegible contributions. To cope with such problems let us cumulate some suggestion and let them send to all concerned authorities in India. mere 5% improvement in situation may help some more researchers *Thanks* *AND * *Sorry if anybody get hurted with my words"* On Thu, Nov 3, 2011 at 10:37 AM, Dr Pankaj Kumar <[email protected]>wrote: > This is interesting article though. But people should understand the > limitations of working in universities and departments in India. How > many young researchers do get an opportunity and access to various > treatise and herbaria which are mostly kept outside India. Even in > India, > How easy is the access to vouchers at national herbaria? > How easily do the experts, who are actually much elder, respond to > requests on mail? > A common researcher, is he funded enough to do all such things on his > own? > > If I have never seen an ideal horse in my life, then for me all four > legged Equidae are like donkeys. Because I dont know how Horse looks > like. > > I have read books by Fraser-Jenkins and Dr. Kholia too. Dr. Fraser > Jenkins is so much obsessed with wrong identifications especially by > Indian scientists that he once wrote a book titled, New Species > Syndrome in Indian Pteridology. Is he sure, he never made mistakes? > Our own, Dr. S.P.Khullar in his book wrote a big note against him on > his mistakes and this virtual war went on and on and on. > > I just checked plant list. Of the 49,961 pteridophyte names (including > infraspecific names) only 9,800 are accepted where as 18,680 names are > synonyms. Please check how many of them are given by Europeans and how > many are by Indians. > > Undoubtedly Dr. Fraser-Jenkins is one of the world renowned experts, > but its us who allowed him to work in India and then he bites on our > back and we do nothing. Because we are Indians and we always respect > our guests probably. > > He himself describes the reason at the end, "If proper credence and > funding were given to plant and animal taxonomy, Indian workers could > easily become experts in the field,". > > I have a friend at a big organisation in India. She is working on > revision of one genus of Orchid in India. How much fund she > has....make a guess... 5000 Rs/year. Now make out how she can revise a > genus with that fund? To add to this, we have National Biodiversity > board, who doesnt allow us to send scientific samples outside unless > some does it illegally. We are not allowed to work with proper funding > and we are not allowed to take help!! I am really lucky that I had a > very good PhD supervisor but I know all are not so lucky. > > At the same time, I also agree to a bit that some foul taxonomists > have created a bad impression about India in general. There are some > loop holes and there are some other reasons like PUBLICATION > PUBLICATION among the academicians that leads to such problems!!! But > I truly hope that the sun is about to rise!! > > Regards > Pankaj > > > > > > > > On Nov 3, 1:15 am, Gurcharan Singh <[email protected]> wrote: > > Thanks Giby ji > > But I personally think this paper is no academic discussion, just washing > > dirty linen in public to further their gains and putting Indian taxonomy > to > > mud-slinging. Misidentifications are not only an Indian phenomenon, > rather > > an obvious global phenomenon, and if you are doing exhaustive taxonomic > > research, you are bound to make some mistakes. It would be fit > > to re-butt such articles which put Indian taxonomy in bad light. This is > > more essential for practicing researches. > > > > -- > > Dr. Gurcharan Singh > > Retired Associate Professor > > SGTB Khalsa College, University of Delhi, Delhi-110007 > > Res: 932 Anand Kunj, Vikas Puri, New Delhi-110018. > > Phone: 011-25518297 Mob: 9810359089http://people.du.ac.in/~singhg45/ > > > > On Wed, Nov 2, 2011 at 10:12 PM, Giby Kuriakose < > [email protected]>wrote: > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > An interesting paper. > > > > > Regards > > > Giby > > > > > -- > > > GIBY KURIAKOSE PhD > > > Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), > > > Royal Enclave, > > > Jakkur Post, Srirampura > > > Bangalore- 560064 > > > India > > > Phone - +91 9448714856 (Mobile) > > > visit my pictures @http://www.flickr.com/photos/giby > -- Regards Dr Balkar Singh Head, Deptt. of Botany and Biotechnology Arya P G College, Panipat Haryana-132103 09416262964
