Though the Horticultural Society was formed on January 1, 1942 in the undivided India, its formal registration was undertaken in 1951 as a result of the sincere efforts of Mr. S.L. Katyal, Assistant Director General (Hort.) ICAR the then Secretary & Editor, HSI. It was with a lot of difficulty, that the necessary formalities were completed and all the relevant documents required were submitted to the Registrar, Joint Stock Companies, Delhi. The “HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF INDIA”, became a Registered Body under the Societies Registration Act, XXI of 1860 and accordingly, Certificate No. 607 of 1951-52 dated 6.11.1951 was issued to the society by the Registrar. A copy of the Horticultural Society of India’s Registration Certificate is given below (Fig. 1). Further on 24th July, 2019, It was renamed as Indian Academy of Horticultural Sciences
Thereafter, all major decisions and proceedings of the Annual General Body meetings of the society were submitted to the office of the Registrar of Societies, Patparganj, Delhi for information. At present the proceedings/ records of the Society are being sent to the office of the Sub Registrar of Societies, Janakpuri District Centre, Janakpuri- 110058, New Delhi after approval of the General Body of the Society.
The Logo
During its establishment, no logo was adopted by the Horticultural Society India. Accordingly in 1998, the Society floated an open competition for designing its logo and after screening the entries received, a logo was selected. The initial logo was basically a line diagram filled with mono colour having Mango representing the ‘National Fruit of India’; Tomato- a Major Vegetable grown across the country, and Rose- representing the Growth in Floriculture in the country. It was during the Inaugural Session of the National Seminar on New Horizons in Production and Post-harvest Management that a new society logo was adopted at the Nuclear Research Laboratory Auditorium, IARI, New Delhi in December, 1998 (Fig. 2). In 2012, the society adopted its present logo substituting black and white photo with colour (Fig. 3).
Similarly, when it was decided to hold the 1st Indian Horticulture Congress in 2004, a logo for the congress was designed by Dr Hemantkumar Mahure, Member and Mr Brahma Prakash of the HSI and the same was adopted for all the congresses. The logo, which has been adopted for the Indian Horticulture Congress (Fig. 3), depicts the following:
- Mango: The National Fruit of India
- Tomato: A Versatile and commonly grown Vegetable in the Country
- Lotus: The National Flower of India
- Coconut: The Kalpavriksha, the Wish Granting Tree
- Rainbow: The Unlimited Potential in Horticulture
The logo was felt necessary to give prominence to Plantation crops in the logo