Kanhoba Ranchoddas Kirtikar

Lieutenant-Colonel Kanhoba Ranchoddas Kirtikar FLS IMS (24 May 1849 – 9 May 1917) was an army surgeon in British India and an amateur botanist.

An early Indian member of the Bombay Natural History Society he had a special interest in medicinal plants, he published many papers on botany and a major work on Indian medicinal plants was posthumously published by his colleague Major B.D.

Besides being a surgeon and botanist, he wrote Marathi poetry and held strong conservative Hindu views.

He also served as 2nd Surgeon at the JJ Hospital and as Professor of Anatomy, Botany and Materia Medica at the Grant Medical College around 1886.

[6] In 1896 he made a trip to Australia and wrote an article on his experiences in the Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society.

In 1920, Major Basu gifted the botany related materials to Calcutta University and suggested that they maintain a Kirtikar Herbarium.