Renowned Researcher, Naturalist and Photographer Dr. Krishna Mohan Prabhu passes away

Renowned Researcher, Naturalist and Photographer Dr. Krishna Mohan Prabhu passes away

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangaluru, January 11, 2022: Renowned Moodabidri based surgeon, researcher, naturalist, cyber techie and hobby photographer Dr. Krishna Mohan Prabhu (55) passed away at AJ Hospital in the city on Tuesday, January 11, 2022 at about 11:30 a.m. He had been admitted to the hospital on 8th December and was later diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia. According to hospital sources, he had been administered with two rounds of chemotherapy, but it could not be continued as his body was unable to sustain the aggressive treatment. He had been in the ICU for the last two weeks.

Popularly known by his pet name ‘Krishi’, Dr. Krishna Mohan was born on November 19, 1967 and educated at Jain School, Moodabidri. He did his MBBS and MS in general surgery at Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore. Presently he was the CEO and Founder at Prabhu General Hospital, Moodabidri.

He is survived by his wife Dr. Radhika Prabhu, a daughter Neethi, his mother and three siblings. Funeral details are yet to be announced.

Biography
Dr. Krishna Mohan was a multifaceted personality actively involved in different fields. An avid naturalist, his had varied interests like trekking, mountaineering, wildlife conservation, photography, classical music, gadgets, computers and the Internet. He was a team member of the 1990 expedition to Brahma I, to scale 21,050 feet of this world’s 17th toughest peak on western Himalayas. During this ascent, he had spent an entire fortnight alone in one of the expedition camps in the Himalayas.

He had encyclopedic knowledge on a wide variety of scientific topics spanning wildlife, biology, medicine, astronomy and was a go to person for gaining ready information on such matters. Of late he had taken an interest in arachnology and had collaborated with international teams for conducting research on spiders. This had resulted in some significant discoveries in spider behavior, species extent and diversity in various parts of India. Some of these discoveries had been published in prestigious international peer reviewed scientific journals.

He had served World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in 1989-92 and conducted innumerable nature camps for young nature enthusiasts at Mudumalai, Bandipur, Nagarhole and Bhadra wild life sanctuaries. He was one of the active members of Arohana Mountaineers and Adventurers which used to meet at Athree Book Centre and has climbed most peaks of the Western Ghats from Goa to Palghat. He was presently a member of Wildlife First.

In a unique forest conservation project, he along with Ashoka Vardhana of Arohana, jointly bought a 15 acre plot of land in the reserve forest in Bisle Ghats on which a resort was planned. They bought this land to prevent its take over for commercial use and left the land as a forest without any interference for the last 15 years. A small container home called Kappe Goodu (a frog’s nest) has been maintained for research purposes at this place called ‘Ashoka Vana’.

He was the founder member and the secretary of the CyberForum Of Mangalore, the organization responsible for getting Internet connectivity to Mangalore and Udupi districts. He conducted numerous workshops and lecture demonstrations on World Wide Web and computers in general in and around Mangalore. His special interests included medical software, bleeding edge technology, Linux and other open source as well as free software, Pocket PC.

He was a keen hobby photographer with a main interest in Macros, Closeups and Nature. Through his blog (drkrishi.com), he used to educate people about nature as well as on photography techniques. He along with some friends had started Mangalore Photography Club and regularly conducted photography workshops, boot camps and photo walks. He had recently started a new venture called Creative Focus to provide more intense training in photography. He also curated a very active photo critic forum on Facebook, which had 2500 members. This forum helped people to learn and improve photography through critical analysis.

Dr. Krishna Mohan was also a staunch rationalist and had attended the founding meeting for the formation of Federation of Indian rationalist Associations (FIRA) held at Podanur in Tamil Nadu about two decades back. Recalling his association with Dr. Krishna Mohan, Prof. Narendra Nayak, President of FIRA said, “I am deeply saddened by the demise of Dr. Krishna Mohan at such a young age. He was one of the pillars of the rationalist movement. He had accompanied us when we had gone to Bangalore to expose claims of psychic surgery and later carried out an awareness campaign at different medical colleges in Bangalore. He was also active in the newly formed 51AH Group which promotes scientific temper.”  

During the Covid pandemic, he was regularly posting the latest scientific developments and updates on Facebook in order to educate the public and avoid panic.