BSI was formally instituted by East India Company (EIC) on 13 February 1890[2] under the direction of Sir George King who became first ex-officio director, earlier he had been superintendent of Royal Botanic Garden, Calcutta since 1871.

The Calcutta Garden became the headquarters of the Survey and was given regional responsibility for Bengal, Assam, North East, Burma, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

[4] Most of the EIC botanical gardens' work was for the cultivation of plants for exploiting resources of India for commerce and trade.

Botanical Survey of India also offers Fellowship for doing research in Plant Taxonomy and also offers post doctorate fellowships to those who are trained in Taxonomy and want to continue their research related to the mandate of BSI.

Since its reorganization, in 1954, BSI officials described 01 new families, 42 new genus and 1719 new species and infra-specific taxon.