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Dr. M.M. Bhandari, Emeritus Professor of Botany, basically a plant taxonomist and a well known desert systematist, has been actively engaged in the study of Desert Plants.  Travelled widely in the Indian Desert, Dr. Bhandari has studied their floristics, palynology, ethnobotany and ecology for nearly forty years now.  The results of his investigations have been appearing prolifically in prestigious Indian and foreign journals.  Associated with a number of International Organisations and Commissions related to Desert Development, Biosphere Reserves, Man and Biosphere Programmes and Species Survival Commission, Dr. Bhandari was the leader of a delegation to USSR to prepare a common INDO-USSR bilateral research programme on desertification and has, therefore, played a key role in the formulation, planning and finalisation of numerous projects on desert ecosystem.  He is a member of several scientific societies in India and is on the editorial board of three scientific journals.  Worked in a number of Herbaria in India, Dr. Bhandari has traveled extensively and visited almost all the leading continental, British and middle-east Herbaria where he was invited as a visiting Professor and also participated in a number of national and international symposia.  He has written five books and has been a recipient of national award.  A committed conservationist, Dr. Bhandari has been associated with several multidisciplinary environmental impact studies both for resource utilization and industrial development and is on the consultancy panel of a number of organizations and institutions.  A Fellow of Linnean Society of London.  Dr. Bhandari has become a very well-known authority on desert plants not only in India but also in many other countries of the world.  He has prepared several Video Films on Desert Plants.  Places and People and has been awarded for the same.