History of Entomology in India

HISTORY OF ENTOMOLOGY IN INDIA

Ancient Indian:

•Honey has been known to us from pre-historic times. Honey finds mention in the Vedas, the Ramayana, the quran and many ancient books. Rigvedas mentions honey as the choist food of god (3000-5000 B.C)

•Atharva veda gives a brief account of Lac, the lac insects and usefulness values of lac. In Mahabharata, there is a reference of Laksha Griha i.e, a house of lac implies that lac had been cultivated in India from pre-historic times.

•Silk production is believed to have originated in China nearly 5000 years ago and slowly spread to India. An Indian prince sends a gift of silk cloth to a Persian ruler in 3870 B.C, indicating that Indians were familiar with the rearing of silkworm.

•In ancient scripts like Ramayana and Mahabharata, some of the terms used were related to insects. They are

Pipilika – Ant,

Pathanga – grasshoppers,

Madhumakshika – honey bees,

Umbakapalika - termite queen

•The reference to insects ant, bees, beetles, flies etc. were found in Sanskrit dictionary, ‘Amarakosa’ and in books like Artha Sastra, Chanakya Sutra etc.

•In Atharvaveda concerning the control of pests infesting crops, humans and animals.

•All these indicate that the ancient Indian was well acquainted with the insects.

Eighteenth century:

•The literature in Entomology is scanty for the first 17th centuries A.D. The earliest record of Indian insects is that of Carl Linnaeus who included 28 species (12 insects only) in the 10th edition of his “Systema Nature” (1758).

•The first regular work on Indian insects on scientific lines was initiated by Dr. John Gerard Koenig (1728-1785). He collected insects of Coromandel Coast and sent to C. Linnaeus and J.C. Fabricius for identification. Fabricius named the red cotton bug after Koenig as Dysdercus koenigi (Fabricius).  He also published a special account of the termites of Thanjavur District.

•John Christian Fabricius who received a large number of insect collection from some Christian missionaries and officials of East India Company and included more than 1000 Indian insect species in his publication “ Entomologia Systematica” (1792-98).

•The “Asiatic Society of Bengal” was first scientific society established at calcutta in 1785. The society encouraged insect collection and exhibition of Indian insects and published entomological literature.

 

   

Nineteenth Century:

•Buchanan (Traveller) wrote on the “Cultivation of lac in India” and on “Sericulture in some parts of South India” (1800). Denovan published “Natural History of Insects” which was the first contribution on the insects of Asia and was revised in 1842 by West Wood.

•The publication of the Indian Museum notes was started in 1889 and five volume were published between 1889-1903. These are the monumental publications in Economic Entomology and may even said to constitute the birth of Applied Entomology in India.

•The Bombay Natural History was founded in 1883 and since 1886 with the publication of the 1st issue of the Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society, numerous contributions on Indian Insects were published in the journal.

•The publication of the fauna of British Indian series was started by the Govt. of India from London in 1892, the first of the series being on the moth fauna of India.

 

Twenty century:

•Lionel de Niceville was appointed as the first Entomologist to Govt. of India in 1901 with headquarter at the Indian Museum, Calcutta.

•Harold Maxwell Lefroy was appointed Entomologist to the Govt. of Indian in 1903 in place of Niceville but was posted at Surat, especially for the study of cotton pests. In 1905, when the imperical (now Indian) Agricultural Research Institute was established at Pusa in Bihar. Lefroy was transferred there as the first Imperical Entomologist. Lefroy did pioneer work on Indian Insects and published two valuable books i.e, Indian insect pests (1906) and Indian Insect Life (1909).

•T. B. Fletcher succeeded H. M. Lefroy as Imperical Entomologist in 1913. He devoted his attention mainly to insect taxonomy and built up an excellent library and a valuable insect collection particularly of Lepidoptera. He also started the publication of the” The catalogue of Indian Insect”. He organised five All India Entomological Meeting at Pusa between 1915-1923. During his tenure, Govt. of Madras (TN) made extensive observations on Agricultural and Horticultural pests, which were later on embodied in his book, Some South Indian Insects (1914).

•E.P. Stebbing was appointed Imperical Forest Entomologist in 1900 and with the establishment of Forest Research Institute at Dehra Dun in 1906. Published book Indian Forest Insects of Economic Importance: Coleoptera(1914).

•The Zoological Survey of India started in 1916 in Indian museum at Calcutta.

•The Entomological Society of India established in 1938 with M. A. Hussian as the founder president. The society started publication of its journal, Indian Journal of Entomology in 1939 with Hem Singh Pruthi as its first Chief Editor.

•Dr. S. Pradhan is consider the “Father of modern applied entomology in India”

•Developed a “biometre” a ready reckoner for estimating the amount of development or the no of generations in any given period and under any range of temp. fluctuation.

•He propounded the famous biotic theory on the periodicity of locust cycle.

•Mode of action of DDT

•He was first to visualize country’s need for IPM and had organized on International seminar on integrated pest control in 1969.

•Prof. A.S. Atwal is considered Father of modern bee keeping in India because he was the 1st scientist to successfully introduce Apis mellifera.

•The acute food shortage after world war II and Bengal famine in 1943 resulted due to failure of paddy crop due to Helimenthosporium oryzae, which draw attention of Govt. to prevent the damage of crop by pest and diseases of various crops. On the recommendation of the Indian Famine Enquiry Commission in 1945, the Directorate of Plant Protection, Quarantine and Storage was established in 1946 under the ministry of Agri., Govt. of India. It is headed by the plant protection advisor to the Govt. of India with headquarter at Faridabad (Haryana).

•The locust warning organization (LWO)- Jodhpur was established in India during 1939. It is responsible for monitoring and control of locusts in the scheduled desert area spread in Rajasthan, and parts of Gujarat and Haryana states.

•The National Plant Protection Training Institute (NPPTI) was established in August, 1966 and is located at Hyderabad. The institute is engaged in the task of training of plant protection functionaries of states in the modern concepts of pest management including crop based IPM approach, pesticide formulation analysis, residue analysis etc. NPPTI in 2008 renamed as National Institute of Plant Health Management (NIPHM).

•The Project Directorate of Biological Control (PDBC) established in October, 1993 with headquarter at Bangalore. The Directorate is involved in research to evolve effective bio-control strategy for important insect pests. PDBC was upgraded as National Bureau of Agriculturally Important Insects (NBAII) in 2009 to exploit the agricultural insect resources from various agro-climatic zones. NBAIR NOW (National Bureau of Agricultural Insect Resources)

•The National Centre for Integrated Pest Management (NCIPM) was established by ICAR in February, 1988 at Faridabad (Haryana). The headquarter of the centre has been shifted to New Delhi, 1995.