ABSTRACT
By virtue of its location at the continent’s centre, the flora of Kashmir shared features with the floras of the neighbouring regions and was thus interesting from the point of view of cytogeography, cytosystematics, history and ecology. This border zone of mixed flora boasted of diverse habitats, which contained both primitive and evolved genera and species, in particular medicinal plants, was attractive to Janaki. In 1959, after retiring as Director of the CBL, she was appointed Officer on Special Duty by the CSIR (the organisation which controlled the RRLs), to help in organising their newly established Regional Laboratory for the study of medicinal plants, at Jorhat in Assam. She was also put in charge of the Cytogenetic Department of the RRL, Jammu; the plan was to remain in Jammu for one-half of the year, and in Jorhat, for the remaining. In 1962, at the behest of Nehru, Janaki at the age of 65 would undertake a journey to Ladakh with the military, to explore the possibilities of high-altitude agriculture to make the region self-sufficient. She would work towards a flora of Ladakh with the help of her doctoral students.
