Professor KS Manilal: The man whose love for the flowers of Kerala will always remain eternal

I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o'er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host of golden daffodils. It goes without saying that Professor Manilal, who passed away at the dawn of the new year aged 86, was truly one of India's greatest botanists. A dream comes true in Silent Valley My association with my Guruji started when I joined him in 1981 as a research fellow in his Department of Science and Technology- I was a freshly-minted MSc in Botany from University College and the project I joined aimed to study the flora of Silent Valley in Palakkad district. Dr VV Sivarajan, a senior student of Professor Manilal then, took us to Silent Valley to teach us how to make collections. We were lucky to rediscover Ipsea malabarica after 140 years because the Silent Valley had remained closed for many decades thanks to the proposed hydro-electric project.