Dr. (Mrs) Sayeeda Wafar (nee Bukhari) believes (!) that she is a reincarnation of Mahatma Gandhi (she was born on the same day of assassination but a year later) and this led her to strive all through her life to attain his qualities. She did achieve some degree of tolerance and patience preached by Gandhi, if not the level of his eminence!. Belief (but not practice) in Ahimsa led to opt for botanical studies and she secured a Master's degree (1971) and a Ph.D. (1989), both in Botany from Karnatak University, India.

Her professional carrier began at the National Institute of Oceanography in 1975 with attempts to prepare liquid fertilizers from seaweed extracts and sell them (she didn't know then that the Government were giving bags of fertilisers practically free to anyone who wanted them - she was still young!). Later she switched over to a more sedate and safer line of research - basic sciences - and chose to work on the ecology of mangroves and remianed loyal to it since then.

Her work on mangroves over the last 20 years spans areas such as phenology, tissue biochemistry, litterfall, predictive modelling of litter production and remote sensing of mangroves, leading to publication of about 30 research papers and a few technical reports. She also works on socio-economic aspects of conservation of mangroves and rural employment generation. Her success in this is due mainly to her proficiency as a linguist (she can converse comfortably in 6 Indian languages, besides English) and her ability to talk (until the other fellow says that he also wants to say something); in fact, she got a gold medal award for the best presentation in a scientific congress. She is also an office-bearer of the Mangrove Society of India.

Dr (Mrs) Wafar's current work is on the use of molecular tools to study the trophic organisation of the mangrove ecosystems. This involves use of a stable isotopes and gene probes. She will be delighted to correspond with anyone interested on these or any other aspect of the mangrove research in India.

E-mail : sayeeda@darya.nio.org/FONT>