Kolkata: Dhriti Banerjee has been the first woman appointed as a 105-year-old zoological survey director (ZSI).
The Cabinet appointment committee on Tuesday “Approved a proposal for the appointment of Dr.
Dhriti Banerjee, E scientist, Zoological Survey India (ZSI) as Director …”.
Banerjee will take over next week.
Speaking on Wednesday, he said, “I believe the 100-year ZSI legacy will help me make organizations to a more green and futuristic height in biodiversity conservation and sustainable development.” The 51-year-old has a famous career as a scientist, conducting research in taxonomy, zoogeography, morphology and molecular systematics.
He is the Coordinator of the ZSI digital data order information since 2012.
Breaking the glass-ceiling in this organization, he pondered, “Women are blessed with unique strength to achieve a balance between work and family.
But I was lucky to have a very supportive one – my husband Sophran , Princess Roinee and my parents.
I also thank my mentor in the organization for their guidance.
“Even though women are equal partners in the development of scientific and national development, their scientific trips around the world begin only at the end of the 19th century.
In fact, ZSI, headquartered in Kolkata with 16 regional centers under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, began recruiting female scientists in 1949, after more than three decades from the beginning on July 1, 1916.
Mira Mansukhani thus created History in an organization that until then was largely dominated by men.
“The ZSI women scientists have conducted a regular survey that explores the fauna diversity from Himalaya to the deep sea and nearly 60% of new species found by female scientists today,” Banerjee said.
“In the last century, only 20% of the total power of scientific staff in ZSI were represented by women.
But their scientific contributions proved that they had played a key role in strengthening ZSI roots,” he said.
ZSI documents the contribution of 100 female scientists on the occasion of a celebration of a hundred years in 2016.
Banerjee has written together with a document entitled “Noble 100 Women’s Scientific Contribution in ZSI”, on the contribution of female scientists associated with various animal groups.
Banerjee was also part of the team in June 2015 who traced the first director general of ZSI Thomas Nelson Annandale, which was buried in the Scottish cemetery in April 1924.
“It was a very useful experience,” Smiled Banerjee.