The Uttarakhand state with close to 65 per cent forest area offers wide opportunities to the students with graduate and post graduate degrees in Forestry. The management of forest cover is one of the major challenges before the state from which major ecosystem services emanate. Thus, Forestry education would help in fulfilling the growing demand for Forestry professionals for conservation and management of Forestry resources at national and international levels. The department of Forestry and Environmental Sciences has attained the goal of starting undergraduate and post-graduate programmes, conducting researches and implementing extension programmes in the envisaged areas. The department has been accredited as an ‘A’ Grade department by the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education, Dehradun in the year 2010. The department has been accredited by the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education, Dehradun on March 17, 2017 through presentation before accreditation Board meeting of ICFRE. The Department will have to play the most important role in the development of Forestry education in this remote part with a natural laboratory would help in developing the economy and managing the forests of the state as well as of the nation in the next years. The department has signed MoU with Herbal Research Development Institute, Gopeshwar, Govind Ballabh Pant Institute of Himalayan Environmental and Development, Kosi-Katarmal, Almora; National Botanical Garden, Lucknow (NBRI); National Bureau of Plant Genetics Resources (NBPGR), Bhowali; Central Himalayan Environmental Association (CHEA) and CEDER, Dehardun. The department envisages strengthening the academic activities through the following specific programmes:

The Department of Forestry, Kumaun University, Nainital was established in 1978 at D.S.B. Campus with the objective to provide knowledge for conserving and scientific management for the forests and natural resources to the student. Keeping in view, the interest of the students and the geographical situation of the region, the University started Post Graduate course in 1988. In the year 1997, B. Sc. Forestry as a paper also started as S.S.J. Campus, Almora. The Department has also introduced a four-year B. Sc. Forestry (self-financed) degree course from 2009, a four-year B. Sc. Agriculture (self-financed) degree course from 2019 and two year post graduate course in M. Sc. Agronomy and M. Sc. Environmental Science from 2020 at D.S.B. Campus, Nainital. At present the Department has Post Graduate and Doctorate status. The University Grant Commission has approved a Post Graduate Diploma in “Mountain Ecosystem and Climate Change” under Innovative program in the Department from 2012. The Department has awarded almost 120 Ph. D. degrees and published close to 400 research papers in the National and International journals, seminars/workshops of repute.

The Department has well equipped and computerized laboratories, glass houses, mist chamber, polyhouses with the most modern equipments. The major equipments available in the department for research activities are Pressure chamber, Laminar air flow chamber, BOD Incubator, Auto analyzer, Seed germinator, Li-Cor, Ap4 Type Porometer, CO2 analyzer, LCDs, Leaf area meter, Canopy analyzer, Plant growth chamber, Seed drier, Seed grander, Ovens, Refrigerator, Deep freezer, UV Spectrophotometer, Soil testing kit, Weather station, Computer lab, ICT enabled smart class, Microscopes, Xerox machines, Microscopes, Multimedia facility, Fax facility etc. A bus also available in the department for conducting field tours of the students. The Department have a library in which close to 1000 text and reference book presently available to undergraduate, post graduate, diploma and doctoral students.

The major thrust areas of research in the Department are forest ecology and eco-physiology, valuation of ecosystem services, seed science and technology, biodiversity assessment and conservation and climate change, agro-forestry and community forestry, silviculture, regeneration, biological invasion, wild-life, medicinal plants, N.T.F.Ps and eco-tourism.

About 25 research projects funded by DBT, DST, MOEF&CC, BSI, UGC, UCOST etc. have been completed while 4 research projects are in progress.

1. 1. Practical Forestry
2. 2. Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Forest Governance. A scoping Study from Uttarakhand.
3. 3. औषधीय एवं सगंध फसल ं की उन्नत खेती
4. 4. Natural Products and their utilization Pattern
5. 5. Sacred Forests of Pithoragarh, Western Himalaya, India

1. 1. Conservation and Scientific Management of the natural resources of the State/country by training forestry students.
2. 2. To contribute to the advancement of knowledge through Teaching, research, publications and dissemination.
3. 3. To meet the growing demand of forestry and environmental professionals in natural resource-based industries, government and NGO sectors.

Vision of the Department

1. Conservation and Scientific Management of the natural resources of the State/country by training forestry students.
2. To contribute to the advancement of knowledge through Teaching, research, publications and dissemination.
3. To meet the growing demand of forestry and environmental professionals in natural resource based industries, government and NGO sectors.