Dept of Zoology

The department of Zoology was established in Vivekananda College in 1965. It is functioning with the intention of elevating the learning of natural science. Today Biological sciences have become such a vast research enterprise that it is not generally regarded as a single discipline, but a number of clustered sub disciplines. This department thus exposes the students to the latest developments in the various fields which are directed to the betterment of human life such as Bioinformatics, Molecular biology, Biochemistry, physiology, vector biology, Biotechnology.

In its early years, the Department was lucky to have the presence of Prof. Ravi Rao, Dr. Jayaleela Rao. They held the distinction of being authorities in a variety of disciplines, including animal taxonomy, physiology, behavior biology, conservation biology, and genetics. Presently Dr. Ishwar Prasad K. S. is working as a H.O.D with the assistance of Smt. Divyashree G. and Sri Suhas Krishna A.G.

Over the course of the three years of B.Sc., an interest for the subject is kindled in the student by means of onsite exposure through fieldtrips, farm visits, nature outings, bird watching, trekking etc., Opportunities to the students were given to participate in programmes like leadership development, career counselling, interview skill building, student placements, gender equity workshops, understanding sustainable development goals, environmental awareness campaigns, small self-financed research projects, and intercollegiate fests. Owing to the fast development of Information Technology in the recent decades, students were trained with recent techniques and technologies in Biology through industrial and institutional visits.

The department caters to the needs of slow as well as of advanced learners. The slow learners are motivated through academic counseling, remedial classes and personal supervision whereas the advanced learners are provided with opportunities to acquire higher learning skills through project work, seminars and participation in competitions. To meet the demands of students and to help them to develop technical skills, the laboratory has been updated with equipment such a Rotary centrifuge, Spectrophotometer, monocular and trinocular microscopes, incubators and binoculars etc.

The department got a major research project entitled ‘Biodiversity study of Kodachadri hill ranges in Mookambika Wildlife Sanctuary sanctioned by ISRO, Govt. of India. The findings of this work has been published as a book entitled, “Biodiversity of Kodachadri Hill Range”, by Vivekananda Centre for Research Studies, VVS, Puttur (2013). The department also received a Minor Research Project entitled ‘Mosquito species diversity and community perception of mosquito borne diseases in Sullia Taluk of Dakshina Kannada. Few of our students also completed SPICE (Science Project in College Education) projects funded by Govt. of Karnataka.

We are honoured to recognize the accomplishments of our alumni. Anushree Bhat S bagged the TMA Pai Gold Medal for earning the highest marks in the BZC Group and the third-rank, Ms. Shivani Mallya got Sixth rank in B.Sc.  examination 2021 conducted by Mangalore University. Some of our alumni are employed by top research institutions, the health care industry, food science industry, yogic centres, others have started their own businesses, some are teachers, and a few have settled in the IT industry as well!