The Zoological Survey of India (ZSI), founded on 1 July 1916 by

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...

Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) is an Indian government ministry. This ministry is headed by Secretary Rank senior most IAS officer. The ministry portfolio is currently held by Bhupender Yadav, Union Minister of ...

, as premier Indian organisation in

zoological Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and dis ...

research and studies to promote the survey, exploration and research of the fauna in the country.

History

The annals of Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) reflect an eventful beginning for the Survey even before its formal birth and growth. The history of ZSI begins from the days of the Asiatic Society of Bengal founded by Sir William Jones on 15 January 1784. The

Asiatic Society of Bengal The Asiatic Society is a government of India organisation founded during the Company rule in India to enhance and further the cause of "Oriental research", in this case, research into India and the surrounding regions. It was founded by the p ...

was the mother institution not only to the

Indian Museum The Indian Museum in Central Kolkata, West Bengal, India, also referred to as the Imperial Museum at Calcutta in colonial-era texts, is the ninth oldest museum in the world, the oldest and largest museum in India as well as in Asia. It has rare ...

(1875) but also to the institutions like the Zoological Survey of India and the

Geological Survey of India The Geological Survey of India (GSI) is a scientific agency of India. It was founded in 1851, as a Government of India organization under the Ministry of Mines, one of the oldest of such organisations in the world and the second oldest survey ...

. ZSI's establishment was in fact a fulfillment of the dream of Sir William Jones, the founder of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, whose vision encompassed the entire range of human knowledge. The Asiatic Society had started collecting zoological and geological specimens since 1796 and set up a museum in 1814.

Nathaniel Wallich Nathaniel Wolff Wallich FRS FRSE (28 January 1786 – 28 April 1854) was a surgeon and botanist of Danish origin who worked in India, initially in the Danish settlement near Calcutta and later for the Danish East India Company and the British ...

, the first Superintendent of the "Museum of the Asiatic Society", was in charge of the increasing collections of Geological and Zoological specimens; he had augmented the animal collections to the Zoological Galleries of the Museum. The genesis of Zoological Survey of India was in 1875 with the opening of the Indian Museum. The new museum on its inception comprised only three sections: the Zoological, the Archaeological and the Geological. The zoological collections of the Asiatic Society of Bengal were formally handed over to the board of trustees of the Indian Museum in 1875. Zoological Section of the Museum during the period from 1875 to 1916 steadily expanded, growing to the greatest collection of natural history in Asia. By the care and activity of the Curators of the Asiatic society of Bengal and the Superintendents of the Indian Museum, viz., John McClelland,

Edward Blyth Edward Blyth (23 December 1810 – 27 December 1873) was an English zoologist who worked for most of his life in India as a curator of zoology at the museum of the Asiatic Society of India in Calcutta. Blyth was born in London in 1810. In 1841 ...

John Anderson John Anderson may refer to: Business *John Anderson (Scottish businessman) (1747–1820), Scottish merchant and founder of Fermoy, Ireland * John Byers Anderson (1817–1897), American educator, military officer and railroad executive, mentor of ...

James Wood-Mason James Wood-Mason (December 1846 – 6 May 1893) was an English zoologist. He was the director of the Indian Museum at Calcutta, after John Anderson. He collected marine animals and lepidoptera, but is best known for his work on two other groups ...

Alfred William Alcock Alfred William Alcock (23 June 1859 in Bombay – 24 March 1933 in Belvedere, Kent) was a British physician, naturalist, and carcinologist. Early life and education Alcock was the son of a sea-captain, John Alcock in Bombay, India who re ...

and finally

Thomas Nelson Annandale Thomas Nelson Annandale CIE FRSE (15 June 1876, in Edinburgh – 10 April 1924, in Calcutta) was a British zoologist, entomologist, anthropologist, and herpetologist. He was the founding director of the Zoological Survey of India. Life The eld ...

and his colleagues, the museum was richly endowed with a magnificent collection of animals, especially of the larger vertebrate groups. Further additions of both land and aquatic fauna to the valuable collections came through during several political and military expeditions, including a number of collections purchased, notably those of Francis Day of Indian Fishes,

Lionel de Nicéville Charles Lionel Augustus de Nicéville (1852 in Bristol – 3 December 1901 in Calcutta from malaria) was a curator at the Indian Museum in Calcutta (now Kolkata). He studied the butterflies of the Indian Subcontinent and wrote a three volume mono ...

of butterflies,

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and

Edward Ernest Green Edward Ernest Green (20 February 1861–2 July 1949) was an Ceylon-born English mycologist and entomologist who specialised in the scale-insects, Coccidae. An accomplished artist, and lithographer, he illustrated the five volume ''Coccidae of Cey ...

of moths, Jacob R. H. Neervoort van de Poll of beetles and Godwin Austen of mollusks. The Zoological Gallery at the Asiatic society Museum under the care and charge of

served the impetus for the formation of the Zoological Survey of India, which was later born as an independent organization on 1 July 1916. The excerpt from the ‘Constitution of the Zoological Survey of India’, released by the Government of India, Department of Education, Resolution no. 19-Museum, dated

Shimla Shimla (; ; also known as Simla, List of renamed Indian cities and states#Himachal Pradesh, the official name until 1972) is the capital and the largest city of the States and union territories of India, northern Indian state of Himachal Prade ...

, 20 June 1916, states: "''In March 1913, the Chairman of the Trustees of the Indian Museum forwarded a representation from the Superintendent of the Zoological and Anthropological Section of the Museum regarding the recognition of the Zoological Section as Zoological Survey. The Government of India, who had already under consideration the desirability of establishing on a sound basis a Zoological Survey of India, informed the Trustees of the Museum that they would be prepared to consider a scheme for such a survey on lines somewhat similar to the existing

Botanical Survey of India Botanical Survey of India (BSI) located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. It was founded on 13 February 1890, is Government of India Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change's organization for survey, research and conservation of plan ...

and asked to furnish with the necessary details. The trustees accordingly submitted their proposals at the end of September 1913''."

, who joined the Indian museum as Deputy Superintendent (1904), and later as the Superintendent (1907), after years-old struggle, achieved his aim in establishing the Zoological survey of India, and became its founder director and continued until his premature death in April 1924. Dr. Annandale was Honorary Secretary to the Trustees of the Indian Museum for several years; he was also the President of the

in 1923. Recently dr. dhriti banerjee became the very first women director of ZSI since its inception in 1916. View of ZSI Headquarters, Kolkata in 1986

View of ZSI Headquarters, Kolkata in 1986

Divisions and sections at headquarters

Divisions & Sections

Regional Centers

*North Eastern Regional Centre (NERC), Shillong, Meghalaya (Estd. 1959). *Western Regional Centre (WRC), Pune, Maharashtra (Estd. 1959). *Central Zone Regional Centre (CZRC), Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh (Estd. 1960). *Desert Regional Centre (DRC), Jodhpur, Rajasthan (Estd. 1960). *Northern Regional Centre (NRC), Dehra Dun, Uttarakhand (Estd. 1960). *Southern Regional Centre (SRC), Chennai, Tamil Nadu (Estd. 1961). *Gangetic Plains Regional Centre (GPRC), Patna, Bihar (Estd. 1965). *High Altitude Regional Centre (HARC), Solan, Himachal Pradesh (Estd. 1968). *Marine Biology Regional Centre (MBRC), Madras, Tamil Nadu (Estd. 1973). *Andaman and Nicobar Regional Centre (ANRC), Port Blair (Estd. 1977). *Freshwater Biology Regional Centre (FBRC), Hyderabad, Telangana (Estd. 1979). *Sunderbans Regional Centre (SRC), Canning, West Bengal (Estd. 1979). *Estuarine Biology Regional Centre (EBRC), Ganjam, Orissa (Estd. 1980). *Western Ghats Regional Centre (WGRC), Kozhikode, Kerala (Estd. 1980). *Arunachal Pradesh Regional Centre (APRC), Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh (Estd. 1983). *Marine Aquarium Cum Regional Centre (MARC), Digha, West Bengal (Estd. 1989).

National zoological collections

The Survey acquired the zoological collections of more than a century old from the former museum of the

and the zoological section of the

(18141875) in

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

Publications

*Records of the Zoological Survey of India *Memoirs of Zoological Survey of India *Occasional Papers *Fauna of British India *Fauna of India *Annual Report since 1961–62 *State Fauna Series (20 States) *Conservation Area Series *Ecosystem Series *Wetland Series *Estuarine Series *Marine Series *Himalayan Series *Animal Discoveries (New species and New records) *Handbooks/Pictorial Guides *Special Publication Series *Status Survey of Threatened Animals *Bibliography of India Zoology (Discontinued) *Zoologiana (Discontinued) Vol. 1–5 *Technical Monograph (Discontinued) Vol. 1–17 *Bulletin of ZSI Vol. (Discontinued) Vo. 1–8

ZSI library

The library in Kolkata and regional centers have a total collection of approximately 1,35,000 volumes, which includes books, journals, monographs, reports of expeditions and fauna surveys, periodicals and other archaic literature on Zoology. The Kolkata library has around 400 titles of rare books. Some of the notable documents include the original publications of Carl Linnaeus and Fabricius, original paintings and drawings of renowned scientists, biogeographers and naturalists.http://www.wbpublibnet.gov.in/node/234

Gallery

File:Sir William Jones.jpg, Sir William Jones File:Anderson John 1833-1900.png, John Anderson File:Anderson Bust.jpg, Bust of John Anderson at Indian Museum File:AlfredAlcock.jpg, AlfredAlcock File:Thomas Nelson Annandale.jpg, Portrait of Nelson Annandale by ZSI Artist File:Coleoptra specimen.jpg, Beetle specimens at Coleoptera Section, Kolkata File:Idea sula sula.JPG, ''Idea sula sula'' specimen at Central Entomology Laboratory, ZSI, Kolkata File:Coral at Marine Museum, ZSI, Chennai.jpg, Coral at Marine Museum, ZSI, Chennai File:Painting of Jerdon's Courser by ZSI artist.jpg, ZSI Library collection:Painting of Jerdon's Courser (''Rhinoptilus bitorquatus'') by ZSI artist File:A view of manuscript collection.JPG, ZSI Library collection: A view of manuscript collection

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Zoological Survey Of India Executive branch of the government of India Fauna of India Natural history of India Organizations established in 1916 1916 establishments in India Organisations based in Kolkata Nature conservation organisations based in India Biodiversity