Background
Kali Pada Biswas was born on December 3, 1899 in Calcutta, West Bengal, India.
Kali Pada Biswas was born on December 3, 1899 in Calcutta, West Bengal, India.
Kali Pada Biswas obtained his Doctor of Science degree (1937) from the University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom. His area of specialization was Botany (Taxonomy).
Kali Pada Biswas was Curator (1927-1936), and Superintendent (1937), Royal Botanic Gardens, and Emeritus Scientist (CSIR) of the Department of Botany, University College of Science and Technology.
Kali Pada Biswas played a leading role in the revival and reorganization of the Botanical Survey of India. He authored Common Plants of Northern Sikkim (1936), Common Medicinal Plants of Darjeeling and the Sikkim Himalayas (1956), and a voluminous work entitled Plants of Darjeeling and the Sikkim Himalayas (1966).
Kali Pada Biswas made a thorough survey of the algal flora of Salt Lake, Kolkata and of the Chilka Lake in Orissa. He was the first Indian who worked and published original finding on Indian diatoms and iron bacterial. He made a rich and extensive collection of plants from India and neighbouring countries. The specimens he collected from Nagaland, Tripura, Manipur, Orissa, Bihar, Sikkim and South Burma were found so rare and valuable that they are now housed at the Central National Herbarium, Kolkata.
