thumb|upright=1.1|A 1984 Indian postage stamp showing Dr. D. N. Wadia and the [[Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, Dehradun in the background.]]

Darashaw Nosherwan Wadia FRS (23 October 1883 – 15 June 1969) was a pioneering geologist in India and among the first Indian scientists to work in the Geological Survey of India. He is remembered for his work on the stratigraphy of the Himalayas. He helped establish geological studies and investigations in India, specifically at the Institute of Himalayan Geology, which was renamed in 1976 after him as the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology. His textbook on the Geology of India, first published in 1919, continues to be in use.

Early life

Wadia was born at Surat in what is now Gujarat, the fourth of nine children of Nosherwan and Gooverbai Wadia on 23 October 1883. They belonged to Parsi family who had traditionally been shipbuilders and another member of this community included Ardaseer Cursetjee, the first Indian elected Fellow of the Royal Society. Nosherwan Wadia worked as a station master in the Indian Railways at Bombay, Baroda and Central India. Young Wadia received his early schooling in a private school at Surat and later at Sir J. J. English School before the family moved to Baroda in 1894 where he went to Baroda High School. The interest in science was instilled by his oldest brother, Munchershaw N. Wadia who was an educationist in the princely state of Baroda. At 16 years, he moved to Baroda College, where he was influenced by Adarji M. Masani the professor of natural history and Aravind Ghosh. He obtained a BSc degree in 1903 in botany and zoology and another BSc degree in 1905 in botany and geology. A noted educationist in Baroda State, who gave him his abiding love of science, devotion to knowledge, and a rational outlook upon human relationships, all of which were to dominate his subsequent career. The study in geology was helped by the geological collections that were made under Maharaja Sayaji Rao Gaekwar. In 1905 he graduated with a M.A. in biology and geology and began to teach undergraduates. Education in geology in India at that time was restricted to the Universities of Calcutta and Madras where officers of the Geological Survey of India sometimes acted as part-time lecturers. At the age of 23, Wadia obtained the post of a Professor of Geology at the Prince of Wales College at Jammu and continued to work there for the next fourteen years.) were to be produced later and this continues to be a major text in Indian geology. In 1925 he discovered tusks and fragments of the extinct elephant-like animal already described as Stegodon ganesa. He also found Upper Triassic plant fossils and Eocene Foraminifera leading to revisions of the map of the region. When he visited the Survey headquarters at Calcutta, he lectured at the Presidency College, then under the University of Calcutta. After G. E. Pilgrim's retirement in 1928, Wadia became the Paleontologist at the GSI and continued in that post until 1935. When Wadia left the GSI in 1938, it was in the rank of Assistant Superintendent, the same one in which he had joined.

Return to India

Wadia returned to India in 1945. In 1947, he became and advisor to the government led by Jawaharlal Nehru. At a meeting he suggested that India should move away from a "lukewarm, hesitating and even patronising" attitude to science and bring about co-operation among Indian scientists to help in tapping "the basic sources of wealth and well-being, yet imperfectly tapped in land, man-power, its rivers, forests, minerals and electric power". In 1948, Homi Jehangir Bhabha who was associated with the creation of the Indian Atomic Energy Act invited Wadia in 1949 to help survey for raw materials for use in reactors.atomic energy. This led to the extraction of thorium and uranium ores in Kerala, Bihar and Rajasthan.

Honours and awards

Wadia presided over numerous committees and was on the editorial board of several journals. Wadia received numerous awards for his work. The Back Award from the Royal Geographical Society in 1934, the Lyell Medal from the Geological Society of London in 1943, the Joyakishan Medal from the Indian Association for the Advancement of Science in 1944, the Jagdish Bose Memorial Medal from the Royal Asiatic Society in 1947, an honorary degree of D.Sc. from the University of Delhi in 1947, the Nehru Medal of the National Geographic Society and the Padma Bhushan from India in 1958. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1957.

In 1951, a 2 Anna Indian postage stamp to commemorate the centenary of the Geological Survey of India illustrated Stegodon ganesa was released. In 1984 an Indian postal stamp with a portrait of Wadia was issued.

References

  • Geology of India for students (1919)
  • Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology
  • Biography at Vigyan Prasar
  • Biographical sketch