Janaki Ammal

In an age when women weren’t encouraged to attend school, Edavaleth Kakkat Janaki Ammal obtained a PhD in botany from one of America’s finest universities, and remains one of the few Asian women to be conferred a DSc by her alma mater, the University of Michigan.

Being an expert in cytogenetics, Janaki joined the Sugarcane Breeding Station (SBS) at Coimbatore. During that time, the sweetest sugarcane in the world was the Saccharum officianarum from Papua New Guinea which India imported from Southeast Asia. The SBS was set up to improve our nation’s indigenous sugar varieties. Ammal contributed immensely to sugarcane research. She manipulated polyploid cells through hybrid cross breeding and created a hybrid variety that was both high-yielding in terms of sugar-content and suited to the Indian climate.

She co-authored ‘The Chromosome atlas of cultivated plants’ with her mentor and friend C.D Darlington. Being an environmental activist, she protested against the building of a hydro-power dam across the river Kunthipuzha in Kerala’s Silent Valley. She was devoted to her research until her death, and today she is remembered for her contributions to science and to the environment. The flower of Japanese and Chinese traditions, Magnolia Kobus Janaki Ammal is named after her