Today is 60th death anniversary of Prof. SP Agharkar (1884-1960) the founder of @aripune @IndiaDST located at GG Agarkar Road #Pune

Prof Agharkar memorabilia is located at @Ari_pune @IndiaDST @aparanjape @indian_hydra

Prof Agharkar did his PhD with eminent botanists such as Ludwig Diels, R.K.F. Pilger and A. Engler on #phytogeography of Indian plants. He spend most of his Phd days in jail as British element in Germany during #worldwar1 #Himalayas #botany #biodiversity

He was professor at #Botany department of #CalcuttaUniversity later he founded Maharashtra Association for cultivation of Science at #Pune in the basement of #LawCollege and later build this amazing looking building with support from governments

Later @ari_pune became an autonomous institute of @IndiaDST and renamed as #Agharkar Research Institute in 1992

Here is a small preview of Agharkar’s collection displayed at @Ari_pune

Prof #Agharkar also contributed to #Flora of #Bombay #Maharashtra #Presidency and #botany sections of #gazetteer

#Agharkar’s contribution to Indian Science is a big list. Here are few

He was the General Secretary of Indian Science Congress, secretary of soil conservation and afforestation committee of planning commission, president of Indian Botanical Society and the list is long

He was instrumental in retaining the #Herbarium of #Botanical Survey of India in India which was planned to move to Britain. Now it serves thousands of Indian #Botanists at BSI Kolkata and it’s regional centres @vinita_gowda

Here are some of important scientific contributions of #Agharkar

@Ari_pune brought out a bilingual biographic note on #Agharkar which is available at memorabilia for free

#Agharkar is also interested in #animal #taxonomy #distribution. He did pioneering work on the distribution of #jellyfish and he was closely associated with Indian Museum and Nelson Annandale, the first director of Zoological Survey of India #ZSI @LabRajeev @naaravind @vvrobin

Ischaemum agharkarii https://tinyurl.com/y3kcg7tp  A new species of #grass from #Talegaon #Pune was described in the name of #Agharkar by @naigavkar @ritesh_ari in remembering his contribution to #Indian Indian #Botany

How can I close a tweet thread without #algae #diatoms? #Agharkar also indirectly contributed to many other groups like #algae. Here is a paper saying #Agharkar collected samples from #Khasi and #Jaintia hills #Meghalaya #Assam for #Biswas @goswamirk THREAD ENDS.