The Department of Forestry and Environmental Science was established during 2004 with amalgamation of two erstwhile departments of Botany and Forestry, which have developed over a period of thirty-seven and thirty years respectively with substantial infrastructure facilities and well qualified faculty members. The department is also supported by DST-FIST during 2005- 2006 and onwards for improving the facilities for postgraduate teaching and research. Upon establishment of the new department, a contemporary requirement of candidates with specialization in forestry and environment science with special emphasis on agriculture is found to be wanting. To meet this requirement a PG program has been started with the title M.Sc. (Ag.) in Environmental Science.

The faculty has rich teaching and research experience and over 36 research projects have been handled over the past two decades. The major areas of study are

Biodiversity Documentation and conservation with emphasis on Medicinal and Aromatic plants, Trees and Shrubs of economic value

Remote sensing and GIS based vegetation classification

Crop introduction, propagation and domestication (Conventional and Tissue culture)

Biofuel Crops- promotion as a part of farming activity to increase farm production Carbon credits etc. from year 2000 onwards

Technology for eco friendly management of living resources

Presently major program on establishing Biofuel plantations in Karnataka and a Biofuel Park at Hassan with an outlay of Rs. 40 crores during next four years.

Department of Forestry & Environmental Sciences
UAS, GKVK, Bangalore - 560065