HYDERABAD, Nov 24: Prominent botanists have stressed the need for research in many parts of the country which have not been explored for enlisting flora and fauna.

They pointed out that unexplored areas include North Waziristan, South Waziristan and Kurram Agency in FATA and Khirthar mountainous range in Sindh and Balochistan.

They were speaking at the inaugural session of a six-day national seminar on "New Trends in Plant Science" organized by the Department of Botany University of Sindh in collaboration with the Pakistan Botanical Society and the Science Foundation of Pakistan.

A large number of science scholars from universities and colleges of the country attended the seminar. They recommended preservation of rare species of flora and stressed the need for more botanical research.

They suggested that the Sindh University scholars should work on Khirthar to discover plants. In his inaugural speech University of Sindh vice-chancellor Mazharul Haq Siddiqui said that the population growth was a real problem which had created a shortage of food.

He said the 21st century was the century of biological sciences and the scholars of related fields would have to conduct up-to-date research to benefit mankind. Mr Siddiqui referred to the list of 200 top universities of the world and regretted that there was no Muslim country in the list.

He said results could not be achieved until there was proper attention on higher education in the country. Dr Qaisar, the dean of the Faculty of Sciences, University of Karachi, stressed the need for more research on the flora of Pakistan especially in those areas where work on plants and species had not been done.

He said that when Pakistan came into being, no information was available about its flora. He said that the information about flora before partition was preserved by medical and army offices of the British government.

He said that for the first time a book about Flora of Pakistan was published in 1976 and help was sought from the published material at the time of the British government.

He said there were many unique plants in Pakistan which were not available in any part of the world and added they must be preserved for research work. He said that in Pakistan, no list had been prepared for identification of endangered species and added that till now only 14 species had been recorded as threatened.

He said that in our country first edition of Flora of Pakistan was published in 1970 which was appreciated world wide by botanist scholars. He said that 35 authors from Pakistan as well as UK, USA, Germany and other countries have contributed to this work.

He suggested that narrow endemics had to be given first preference followed by such endemics which were found in more than one locality and exploration of our plants wealth had to be discovered.

The dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Sindh, Prof Asif Ali Kazi said the seminar would be helpful in updating the syllabus of the botany discipline.

He proposed that botany scholars should incorporate agricultural aspect in botany discipline to make it attractive for students. He said that due to a shortage of water the environment was changing and stressed that the destruction of forests should be stopped.

The president of the Pakistan Botanical Society, Prof (Dr) Hidayat Abro, traced the history of the society. He said the PBS would monitor the on going research in the country.

The coordinator of the seminar Prof (Dr) Tahir Rajput said that recently the Higher Education Commission had introduced a new syllabi for botany students at the graduate level.