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{{Short description|Indian scientist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2023}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Kailas Nath Kaul
| image = MSc LU 1928.jpg
| caption = Kaul at the [[University of Lucknow]] in 1928 (standing, fourth from left)
| birth_date = 1905
| death_date = 1983 (aged 77–78)
| fields = [[Botany]], [[Agricultural science]], [[Natural resource management]], Horticulture
| workplaces = [[National Botanical Research Institute]], India; [[Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew]], United Kingdom; [[Natural History Museum, London]], United Kingdom; University of Cambridge, United Kingdom; [[Lucknow University]], India; [[Kanpur University]], India; [[Chandra Shekhar Azad University of Agriculture and Technology]], India; [[University of Kashmir]], India; [[Central Drug Research Institute]], India
| known_for = [[Arecaceae]] research
| awards = [[Padma Bhushan]], Indian civilian honour (1977)
| spouse = [[Sheila Kaul]]
| relatives = [[Kamala Nehru]] (sister)
}}
'''Kailas Nath Kaul''' (1905–1983) was an Indian [[botanist]], [[naturalist]], [[agricultural scientist]], [[horticulturist]], [[herbalist]], [[plant collector]] and [[herpetologist]], and a world authority on [[Arecaceae]]. He founded India's [[National Botanical Research Institute]] and was instrumental in organizing the country's modern scientific infrastructure. He is regarded as a vital influence behind his niece [[Indira Gandhi]]'s proactive role in environmental protection by means of extensive legislative and policy interventions.<ref name="Statesman">{{cite news|title=Indira and the bounty of nature|newspaper=The Statesman|date= 24 September 2017|access-date=20 October 2017|url=http://www.thestatesman.com/books-education/indira-bounty-nature-1502498236.html}}</ref><ref name="ET">{{cite news|title=Indira Gandhi made environment a fashionable subject when it wasn't one in India|newspaper=The Economic Times|date= 30 June 2017|access-date=20 October 2017|url=https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/indira-gandhi-made-environment-a-fashionable-subject-when-it-wasnt-one-in-india-jairam-ramesh/articleshow/59369704.cms}}</ref>

==Notable achievements==
Having served as the first Indian scientist at the [[Kew Gardens|Royal Botanic Gardens]], [[Kew]],<ref name="Kew1">{{cite journal |author=News |journal=Nature |year=1939 |title=Assistant for India at Kew|volume=144 |issue=3654 |page=829 |doi=10.1038/144829a0|bibcode=1939Natur.144Q.829. |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref name="Kew2">{{cite journal |author=News |journal=Nature |year=1945 |title=Botanist for India at Kew|volume=156 |issue=3963 |page=444 |doi=10.1038/156444b0|bibcode=1945Natur.156R.444. |doi-access=free }}</ref> and worked with the [[Natural History Museum, London|Natural History Museum]], London, and several British universities including the [[University of Cambridge]], Professor Kaul established the [[National Botanical Research Institute]] (formerly, the National Botanic Gardens of India), at [[Lucknow]] in 1948. He directed the Institute until 1965, during which time it remained one of the world's five best botanical gardens, along with those at Kew (UK), Bogor (Indonesia), Paris (France) and New York (USA). From 1953 until 1965, Kaul surveyed botanically the whole of India, from the [[Karakoram]] mountains in the north to [[Kanyakumari]] at the southern tip of the country, and from the [[North East Frontier Agency]] in the east to the [[Rann of Kutch]] in the west. In the same period, he contributed to the development of the botanical gardens at [[Peradeniya]] (Sri Lanka), Singapore, Bogor (Indonesia), Bangkok (Thailand), Hong Kong, Tokyo (Japan), and Manila (Philippines). He represented India at the [[International Botanical Congress]]es at Paris (1954), Montreal (1959), and Edinburgh (1964). In 1968, he was elected as the President of the Palaeobotanical Society, India. In 1975, he was appointed the first [[Vice Chancellor]] of the [[Chandra Shekhar Azad University of Agriculture and Technology]], [[Kanpur]], India.

Kaul's 1929 work on the medicinal plant ''[[Artemisia (genus)|Artemisia]] brevifolia'' in [[Kashmir]] caused yields of [[Santonin]], an [[anthelminthic]] derived from the plant, to increase six times. This made the production of Santonin economically viable in India.

In 1947, Kaul discovered fresh water [[aquifers]] in the princely state of [[Jodhpur]] in the [[Thar Desert]], India, mainly by studying the spatial patterns of vegetation and depths of wells in the region. He used a small aircraft owned by Maharaja [[Umaid Singh]] to conduct aerial surveys for this purpose. He then prepared a [[desert reclamation]] scheme to solve the enigma of Jodhpur's water shortage. In 1949–50, he also organized the Underground Water Board for Rajasthan at [[Jaipur]].

In 1969, Kaul, a native of [[Kashmir]], was appointed Director for Gardens, Parks and Floriculture in the Indian state of [[Jammu and Kashmir (state)|Jammu and Kashmir]]. He worked for several years on the conservation and management of floral [[biodiversity]] and the rejuvenation of the [[Mughal Empire|Mogul]]-era gardens in the state, and as the advisor to the [[Chief Minister]] on the subject.

Kaul was responsible for the [[land reclamation|reclamation]] of several thousand acres of [[alkaline]] land in the Indian state of [[Uttar Pradesh]]. His work has been named ''The Banthra Formula'' after Banthra, the place where it was initiated in 1953. The project involved [[organic farming|organic]] amendments and biological interventions such as the cultivation of [[alkali]]-tolerant [[herbaceous]], [[shrub]] and [[tree]] species. Its decentralized, community-based development approach benefited [[subsistence]] and small-scale commercial farmers through the intensification and diversification of [[biomass]] production for food, fuel, fodder, fertilizers, medicines, timber, [[animal husbandry]], [[aquaculture]], soil amelioration, and bioaesthetics.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Gh87O2st1MgC&q=kailas+nath+kaul&pg=PA36 |title=Vetiver Grass: A Thin Green Line Against Erosion |author=Panel on Vetiver, Board on Science and Technology for International Development, National Research Council |year=1983 |publisher=National Academies Press |access-date=2 July 2014|isbn=9780309598149 }}</ref>

As the architect of the ''Vigyan Mandir'' or School of Science Scheme (1948), which was later adopted by the Government of India, Kaul encouraged science education and research across the country. He also worked for the promotion of traditional sculpture, painting, and [[applied arts]], and was elected as the President of the [[Lalit Kala Akademi]] of [[Uttar Pradesh]] in 1965.

==Contribution to the Indian freedom movement==
Kaul joined the Indian freedom movement led by Gandhi in 1930, when he was sent by the [[All India Congress Committee]] to assist [[Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan]] in organising rural uplift work in the [[Kohat]], [[Bannu]] and [[Peshawar]] districts. He also worked in villages adjoining [[Delhi]] under the guidance of [[Asaf Ali]] during the [[Civil Disobedience Movement]]. In 1931, Kaul was arrested and charged with planting the flag of Independence and was sentenced to six months in jail. While in jail, he ran a school for 'C Class' prisoners. His thesis on [[alkaline]] (''usar'') soils was confiscated by the British Government for his active participation in the Indian Freedom Movement. Kaul also worked against [[untouchability]] and gave free education to [[Dalit]] children in Lucknow. His mother Rajpati Kaul and his sister [[Kamala Nehru]] were among the first few women to have participated in the Indian freedom movement.

Colonel [[Richard Meinertzhagen]], on [[Salim Ali]]'s choice of Kailas Nath Kaul as the botanical expert for a 1937 expedition to Afghanistan, remarked, ''"He [Kaul] is a young man, nice mannered and intelligent, but I am a little doubtful whether I can stomach two seditionists for three months all day and every day. Salim is a rank seditionist and communist; so is Kaul..."''<ref>{{cite book |title=Inventing Global Ecology: Tracking the Biodiversity Ideal in India, 1947-1997 |author=Michael L. Lewis|publisher=Ohio University Press|year=2004|page=40}}</ref>

==Family and friends==

Rajpati and Jawahar Mull Atal-Kaul were Kaul's parents, and [[Kamala Nehru]], [[Chand Bahadur Kaul]], and Swaroop Kathju were his siblings.<ref name="Gandhi">{{cite book |title=Two Alone, Two Together: Letters Between Indira Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru 1922-1964 |author=Gandhi, Sonia |publisher=Penguin|year=2004 |isbn=9780143032458|page=xxi-xxii}}</ref> He was married to [[Sheila Kaul]], an educationist, social worker, and politician. [[Gautam Kaul (Film Critic)|Gautam Kaul]], [[Deepa Kaul]], and Vikram Kaul are their children.

Kaul's paternal great-grandfather, Moti Lal Atal (originally Thullal in [[Kashmiri language|Kashmiri]]), was [[dewan]] of the princely state of [[Jaipur]], his brother-in-law, [[Jawaharlal Nehru]] ''('Jawahar Bhai')'', was the first prime minister of independent India, and his niece, [[Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi]] ''('Indu')'', was the third prime minister of India.<ref name="Gandhi"/> Having spent much time with him in the [[Himalayas]], Indira became deeply influenced by Kaul's passion for nature.<ref name="ET"/> Kaul was introduced to Kumaon and Garhwal’s botanical diversity by Nirmal Chandra Chaturvedi, a prominent social worker from Lucknow.

Among Kaul's natural scientist friends were Frank Hawking, a British biologist and physician and [[Stephen Hawking]]'s father; Sir [[Edward James Salisbury]], a British botanist and ecologist; [[Ronald Melville (botanist)|Ronald Melville]], a British botanist; [[Arthur John Cronquist]], an American botanist; [[Birbal Sahni]], an Indian palaeobotanist; G.C. Mitra, an Indian botanist; [[Alexandr Innokentevich Tolmatchew]], a Soviet botanist; [[Kiril Bratanov]], a Bulgarian biologist; [[Ronald Pearson Tripp]], a British palaeontologist; and [[René Dumont]], a French agronomist. His other friends included [[Todor Zhivkov]], former President of Bulgaria; [[Alfred Jules Ayer]], a British philosopher, [[Herbert V. Günther]], a German philosopher and linguist, and [[Margaret Mee]], a British botanical artist.

==Awards and honours==
*[[Padma Bhushan]], Indian civilian honour (1977)<ref name="Padma Awards">{{cite web|url=http://mha.nic.in/sites/upload_files/mha/files/LST-PDAWD-2013.pdf |title=Padma Awards |publisher=Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India |date=2015 |access-date=21 July 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151015193758/http://mha.nic.in/sites/upload_files/mha/files/LST-PDAWD-2013.pdf |archive-date=15 October 2015 }}</ref>
*K.N. Kaul Institute of [[Life Sciences]], India
*K.N. Kaul Block, [[National Botanical Research Institute]], India
*''[[Kaulinia]]'', a [[genus]] of [[fern]]s named in his honour.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Kaulinia, a new genus of Polypodiaceous fern |journal = Taxon|volume = 13|issue = 2|pages = 67–69 |jstor = 1216315|year = 1964|doi = 10.2307/1216315|last1 = Nayar|first1 = B. K.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |jstor=1216315 |title=Kaulinia, a New Genus of Polypodiaceous Ferns |first=B. K |last=Nayar |year=1964 |journal= Taxon|volume=13 |issue=2 |pages=67–69 |doi=10.2307/1216315}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*{{cite journal |title=Plants New to Assam: XII|journal= Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew)|volume=1940|issue=5|date=1940|pages=194–198 |doi=10.2307/4111570 |jstor=4111570|doi-access=free}}
*{{cite web|url=https://www.dawn.com/news/1069473/dawn-features-october-09-2006 |title=DAWN – Features; October 09, 2006 – Newspaper |website=Dawn|location=Pakistan |date=2006-10-09 |access-date=2016-06-30}}
*{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/stream/jahresberichtde00nrgoog/jahresberichtde00nrgoog_djvu.txt |title=Full text of "Jahresbericht der Naturhistorischen Gesellschaft zu Nürnberg" |website=Archive.org |year=1882 |access-date=2016-06-30}}
*{{cite journal|url=http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/savifadok/volltexte/2009/254/pdf/K_.pdf |title=Burma/Myanmar Bibliographic Project: A Collection of Publications in West-European Languages for Preparation a Burma/Myanmar Bibliography |website=Archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de |date=2009-02-17 |doi=10.11588/xarep.00000254 |access-date=2016-06-30|last1=Schwertner |first1=Siegfried M. }}
*{{cite journal |title=Ashwagandha: An Ancient Indian Drug|author1=C. K. Atal |author2=A. E. Schwarting|journal=[[Economic Botany]]|volume=15|issue=3 |date=July 1961|pages=256–263 |jstor=4252277|doi=10.1007/BF02862166 |s2cid=30473159 }}

{{PadmaBhushanAwardRecipients 1970–79}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kaul, Kailaas Nath, Kailash Nath, K.N.}}
[[Category:20th-century Indian botanists]]
[[Category:Scientists from Lucknow]]
[[Category:1905 births]]
[[Category:1983 deaths]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in literature & education]]
[[Category:Kashmiri people]]
[[Category:Kashmiri Pandits]]

Kailas Nath Kaul - Revision history

BootTPP at 07:13, 29 April 2026