Department of Botany was established in 1954. It was once headed by the towering botanist, the late Rev. Fr. Dr. Cecil J. Saldanha, whose achievements have inspired hundreds of students and continues to be a guiding light to the Department and the College to this day. Dr. Jayarama Reddy, Associate professor, currently heads the department and the PG coordinator is Dr. Rajamani S. Presently, the programs offered by the department include five undergraduate courses with a maximum intake of 70 students each. The post-graduate programme intake was 20 until 2014, after which it was increased to 30.

In the final year of the Master's programme, four elective papers are offered by the department (two elective papers per semester) and students specialize in any two of their choice. It is mandatory for all the post-graduate students to work on a short-term project in the 2nd year (3rd and 4th semesters) in the electives offered by the department which involves various areas of research like Advanced Plant Physiology, Plant Tissue Culture, Plant Systematics and Microbiology. The department has a total of 15 teaching faculty, of which 03 are aided staff, all of whom are Associate Professors with doctoral degrees and have over 30 years of teaching experience each. There are 12 unaided faculty all of whom are PhD/NET/KSET qualified. The department is supported by 4 attenders. The department promotes a culture of academics and research amongst its students. Keeping this in mind, students are encouraged to take up various research topics of their interest and present their work in National and International conferences and publish papers as well. .