Sunder Lal Hora did his MSc from the University of Punjab, Lahore (now in Pakistan). His areas of specialization were zoology and ichthyology. He was the Director, Zoological Survey of India.

Academic and Research Achievements: Hora’s research spanned a wide range of zoological topics – physiology, systematics, bionomics, ecology, evolution, zoogeography and paleogeography besides history of zoology, always with fish as the motif. His main contribution was to the taxonomy of fish. He studied the systematics of fish of India, Afghanistan, Burma, Malaya, Thailand, China, Indonesia and Iraq. He discovered a large number of new species, several new genera and revised numerous families. He put forth ‘Satpura Hypothesis’ (in 1937) where he explained that the similarity between the Malayan fauna and the fauna of Peninsular India without an apparent connecting link (a well-known fact of zoogeography known since the last century) was due to migration from eastern regions to the western via the Satpura Range of mountains in central India. This hypothesis was mainly based on evidence from freshwater fish. Later on, he elaborated it to include diverse group of animals.

Awards and Honours: :Hora was the President of INSA (1951-52).

The Indian National Science Academy has instituted the ‘Sunder Lal Hora Medal’ in his honour.