KSCSTE-Malabar Botanical Garden and Institute for Plant Sciences

Malabar Botanical Garden and Institute of Plant Sciences (MBGIPS) is a botanical garden situated in Olavanna Grampanchayat, Kozhikode District, Kerala, India. It is recognized as one of India's leading botanical gardens for aquatic plant species and is a member of Botanic Gardens Conservation International with international agenda registration. The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has approved it as a 'Lead Botanic Garden' for aquatic plant conservation. It houses 432 of the 742 species mentioned in van Rheede's Hortus Malabaricus, along with 150 species of pteridophytes, over 60 species of bryophytes, 52 species of fruit trees, 60 species of aromatic plants, and more than 400 Indian aquatic plants, the largest such collection in the country. The institution began as a Government Botanical Garden in 1991, was upgraded in 1996 into the autonomous Malabar Botanical Society, and became a research institute under KSCSTE in 2015. It is an accredited research center of the University of Calicut and a Regional Centre of Expertise in Sustainable Education under the United Nations University, Japan. The 45-acre garden lies 8 km from Kozhikode city and railway station, and 25 km from Kozhikode International Airport. It received the Leadership Award from the National Academy of Biological Sciences in 2014, and new facilities including a Block for Advanced Research, Guest House Complex, and Aquatic Biopark are under construction.