Story for occasion of 15th anniversary.:
A view on efloraindia Google group by Dr. Santhan P Plant Taxonomist Medicinal plant specialist on the occasion of 15 anniversary celebration.
EfloraofIndia google group is a symbol of cooperation coordination and free service. I am associating with the group from the past 10 years. I first appreciate the enthusiasm and focused and planned work of JM Garg ji and other members like Dinesh Valke ji, Gurucharan Singh ji etc. Experts from different part of the country youngsters, senior members, working professionals, retired members have contributed a lot for the present development of the group activity. Dr. E.S. Santhosh Kumar, Dr. Giby Kuriakose, Dr. Prabhu Kumar, C Kunhikannan ji, Dr. Sasidharan, N. etc, from Kerala, myself, Vijayasankar Raman, Muthu Karthick, Dr. Badrinarayanan T, Thiruvengadam Ekambaram from Tamilnadu, Dinesh Valke ji, Anurag N. Sharma, Raman Arunachalam, Prashant K Awale, T.S.P Kumar (DFO), Puttaraju K, Mahadeaswara ji, etc, from Karnataka, Radha Veach ji, Alka Khare, Tanay Bose, Aarti S. Khale, Dr. Ritesh Kumar ji, Shrikant Ingalhalikar, Mayur Nandikar, Satish Pardeshi, Dr. Satish Phadke, Smita Raskar, Neil Soares etc. from Maharashtra; Paradesi Anjaneyulu, Dr. Lalithamba Avadhanam, etc. from Andhra Pradesh, Ashutosh Sharma, Ashwini Bhatia, Dr. Anil Thakur from Himachal area, D S Rawat, Dr. G. S. Goraya, IFS from Uttarakhand, Surajit Koley ji, Tapas Chakrabarti ji, Dr. Usha Desai Mam from West Bengal, Karuna Das ji from Assam; Dr. Balkar Arya, Dr. Nidhan Singh from Punjab area, Dr. Pankaj Kumar from Jharkhand orchid specialist contributed considerably to the group. Due to the official importance some may not able to associate continuously. Still the main members with Garg ji as an engine brought the activity to the present level. Efloraindia is having 4,00,000 images of 14,000 species of flowering plants, Ferns and Conifers of India and other countries, especially Nepal which is contributed by Saroj Kasaju ji. Each member is a dedicated taxonomist and photographers. Their contribution is valuable. Updating it to the current level is equally a big task. Suddenly Google did not support the site. Garg ji, Dinesh ji took immediate initiative and started our own website and uploaded the whole data into the new site. On the behalf of 3000 members, I appreciate the efforts of Garg ji, who borne all the financial commitments. The restless photo uploading of Alka Khare, Aarti S. Khale cannot be forgotten easily. During family week celebration during 2013-2015 so much image uploads happened. Being Taxonomist I need to collect information on valid botanical names, author citation and common name in different languages. I am able get this detail instantly from efloraofindia.com web site. More than 10 women members are associating with the group. Encouraging the members by giving moderator ship, nominating them as pillars of efloraofIndia is really gave a boost in the group, indirectly it provided responsibility and ownership to the members.
Indian Botany (Floristic study) is developed by great botanists like Robert Wight, William Roxburgh, Joseph Dalton Hooker, Charles Baron Clarke, Sir Dietrich Brandis, J.S gamble, CEC Fischer, Philip Furley Fyson, Theodore Cooke, Father Santapau as director of Botanical Survey of India and other officials continuously discovered several new species and published Flora of India volumes and state floras. Several University professors also publishing new regional floras. The efloraofindia.com (Indiantreepix- Google group) is really a commendable contribution for the current world. It is our responsibility to develop it further and made available to the community and world. Appreciating and thanking the members for their hard work and participation.
I wrote a one page write up on efloraofIndia. If find suitable kindly publish it
Thanks a lot, Santhan ji. Really well done.
I will publish it shortly with slight corrections.
Very nicely written article, Santhan ji. Thank you for sharing.
Well written. Thanks for sharing.
Happy to be a part of such a group. I have learnt a lot.
Nice writeup Santhan Ji, it is evident that the efforts of Garg Ji and all the stalwarts like Gurcharan Sir, Dinesh Ji, Rawat Ji have brought eFI to such a level that one can be very proud to be a member…!!
I wish many many more years of activity and solidarity to eFI..
Thanks, Pankaj ji, for putting such nice words. Hope this endeavour leads us all towards a good fulfilling life.
It is published now and can be seen at
https://efloraofindia.com/2022/04/26/p-santhan-story-of-efloraofindia-to-celebrate-15-years-of-its-completion-on-17-6-22/
Posted it on efloraofindia Facebook account. Also posted on the Indian Flora facebook group, of which I am a member.
I request members to pl. circulate it widely in other groups, on their Facebook/ Instagram/ Twitter account etc., to give wide publicity, to celebrate 15 years of coming completion.
Fabulously written story. Explained so well
I spent a good time thinking about how to thank you for praising me and placing me near Gurucharan ji. Definitely some good deeds in earlier life !! Thank you very much for the nice and kind words. I am surprised that you are senior to Balkar ji and Nidhan ji in terms of age.
I was also surprised when I came to know this … But I treat them as seniors, obviously they are more experienced and they are teachers!!
Thank you for your kind words as always.
They are the young blood of this great family.
nice narration; but an important point we have forgotten is many species posted in the site, kept as to be identified or unidentified species are later identified as new species; without acknowledging them. we have to find a solution to it
Really great job Santhan ji.
While going through my Page, I liked this one which I wrote in 2011, but is still true
Why I love Efloraofindia?
I have asked myself many a times why do I feel so involved with efloraofindia group and love interacting it? I found the following answers:
1. I love the group because it has given me a good reason to keep busy after retirement (I felt involved even before formal retirement), so that I don’t have to think about how should I spend my time.
I I love the group because it has given me a reason to restudy, catalogue, digitise my herbarium collection of more than 10,000 specimens, which were lying unattended due to my busy teaching schedule. I would be uploading these as a virtual herbarium.
2. I love this group because it has now given me a zeal and plan to visit as many places as possible. More important, visiting these places in different months so that I am able to find, photograph and have new plants to report in the group. Adding these to my publications would be a bonus for me.
3. I love this group because of our prominent members Garg ji (who in spite of being the owner of the group, has never given the impression of authority), Dinesh ji (the architect of its great advancement), Satish Phadke ji (the great strength of the group), Vijayasankar ji, Shrikant ji, Nayan ji, Nidhan ji, Balkar ji, Prashant ji, Tabish ji, Pravin ji, Devendra ji and Promila ji (the great experts, who don’t allow any plant to go unidentified, and at the same time are great examples of high morality and great humility, the examples to be followed by our youngsters.
4. I love this group for plant lovers Neil ji, Yazdy ji, who own huge collection of plants in their estates and never hesitate to share these. I salute Neil ji for his great knowledge of plants.
5. I love the group for members like Nalini ji, Madhuri ji, Padmini ji, Aarti ji, Rashida ji, Pankaj Oudyia ji, Anand ji, our story telling group, who never miss an occasion to add spice to the information, and never allow the discussion to lose its interest. Mani ji and Antaryamy have added flavor to these interactions by their frequent Hindi couplets.
6. I love the group for its young experts Pankaj ji, Mahadeswara ji, Giby ji, Rajdeo ji, Muthu ji, Smita ji, Ritesh ji, Mayur ji, Manudev ji, Raghu ji, Shantanu ji for their great expertise, love for plants and never hesitating to share their point of view, although maintaining the high standards of communication. They are the future of the group. Snehal ji, I am happy, is learning it fast. Others who interact less frequently, and I am able to recollect their names may please excuse me.
7. I love Tanay (the only person I don’t attach ji) the most, because this young fellow who has such a great knowledge of plants from every part of India/World at this young age has attained the high level of maturity after joining this group.
8. Our new active members Alok ji, Puttaraju ji and others are enriching our database and gradually adjusting to the group norms.
My request to some young members is not to get tempted to depict the show of authority and knowledge. The members are intelligent enough to understand the capability of each member. These young members have a great future, and I wish that learning from the experience of interacting in the group would bring great success in life. (20.3.11)
You prompted me to write the most important reason why I love this group, here it is:
9. The most important thing why I love this group is that “in spite of some occasional sharp exchanges, members on this group love each other so much that no one is allowed to leave the group easily. There were occasions when some important members like Dinesh ji, Tanay or Rahida ji wanted to leave the group for some unpleasant episode, but all of really saw that they don’t leave. Similarly Pankaj ji left the group temporarily because I wrote some thing to Tanay about the norms the group. Tanay became my best friend (or my favourite) from that day, but Pankaj ji left the group, to rejoin after some time on requests from the members. I was the one who suggested his return to the moderator group again. That is the beauty and strength of the group”. (24.3.11)
Nice write-up Gurcharan ji! Your words are timeless and very inspiring!
