Abbareddy Nageswara Rao

Abbareddy Nageswara Rao is a botanist who has spent close to four decades finding, naming and protecting orchids in the forests of Northeast India. He was named for the Padma Shri in 2023 in the field of science and engineering, from Andhra Pradesh ^[1].

From Waltair to the eastern Himalaya

Rao was born on 19 June 1954 and took a master’s degree in botany from Andhra University, Waltair, in 1977 ^[2]. On a Department of Science and Technology fellowship he then studied the orchids of Arunachal Pradesh for his doctorate, working at the Botanical Survey of India’s eastern circle in Shillong between 1978 and 1982; Andhra University awarded him the PhD in 1985 ^[2].

He went on to serve the Arunachal Pradesh forest department for 30 years as orchidologist at the State Forest Research Institute in Itanagar ^[2]. After that he spent four years as project director of a centre for orchid gene conservation at Hengbung, in Manipur’s Senapati district ^[2].

A record number of new species

His field trips into little-explored forest across the northeastern states produced 35 orchid species that had never been described before, along with 46 orchids recorded in India for the first time and 65 new records for the Northeast ^[2]. The Limca Book of Records listed him in 2020 for the most new orchid species found in India ^[2]. He has written more than 200 research papers on orchids ^[2].

Rao also helped stock orchid gene banks in the region and trained women’s self-help groups from several Arunachal communities, including the Adi, Aka, Monpa and Sherdukpen, to propagate and grow orchids ^[2]. He has served on national expert panels on orchids, botanic gardens and plant variety protection, and on Arunachal Pradesh’s medicinal plants and biodiversity boards ^[2].