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The PEOPLE

Dr. Marseline Almeda and Saramma Almeda

Vasundhara Sanman

Maharashtra is proud of the huge contributions made by Dr. Marceline Almeda towards Botany. Native to Sawantwadi in Sindhudurg district, Dr. Almeda is a well-known plant taxonomist. His wife who is a botanist has written six volumes of ‘Flora of Maharashtra’. He is credited with 28 research papers on Indian Botany. Dr. Almeda has worked with numerous national and international institutes as a plant taxonomist and is on the working committee of the Bombay Natural History Society. He also is the honorary editor of their botanical periodical. He is a member of the committee appointed by the govt. of Maharashtra to study native medicinal plants. He, again as a member of the evaluation committee, looks into forestry and social forestry projects. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Prince of Wales Museum in Mumbai, a fellow of ‘Maharashtra Academy of Sciences’ and a life-member of ‘World Wildlife Fund’. He has researched about naming and classification of plants of Konkan and the Devrais (plantations attached to temples) in Sindhudurg district. Even in his 70s, Dr. Almeda arranges seminars for school and college students.