E-Paper
Celebrated environmentalist and former university V-C killed in Odisha
Dhrubaraj Naik, 83, former vice-chancellor of a state university in Odisha as well as a renowned environmentalist was hacked to death by an inebriated miscreant at his house in western Odisha district of Jharsuguda, officials said
Dhrubaraj Naik, 83, former vice-chancellor of a state university in Odisha as well as a renowned environmentalist was hacked to death by an inebriated miscreant at his house in western Odisha district of Jharsuguda, officials said. As per the police, Naik refused to give ₹100 to the intruder.
Police officials in Jharsuguda said the miscreant entered the residence of the former Sambalpur University vice-chancellor when he was not there. Upon his arrival at around 12.30 pm, the culprit demanded ₹100.
“The youth entered the former V-C’s bedroom when he was not there. The youth named Rimit Dura, 20, seemed to be drunk and kept demanding ₹100. When Naik came home at 12.30 pm, he confronted the youth for trespassing into the house. He then asked his son-in-law to call up the police. This seems to have enraged the miscreant who hacked him with the axe that he was carrying and left him bleeding profusely at the spot,” said Jharsuguda SP Bikash Chandra Dash.
Naik was rushed to a private hospital in Jharsuguda, where he succumbed to injuries during treatment.
Police arrested Durua from a nearby forest after two hours of search and are interrogating him about his motive for murder. Police officials said as the youth was into the timber business, Naik may have been opposing his felling of trees.
Naik, a prominent academician of western Odisha, was appointed the vice-chancellor of Sambalpur University in June 1998 and served till July 2001. A gold medallist in M.Sc.(Zoology) from Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Naik went on to head the Zoology department at Utkal University where he retired in June 1998.
His research interests included cytophysiology and immunohistochemistry of the pituitary gland from fish to mammals, and localization of (then newly discovered) neuropeptides (having Morphin-like action), such as Enkephalins and Endorphins in the brain of vertebrate animals. He was selected by the UGC in 1979 to undertake advanced training as a visiting scientist at the University of North Carolina, USA, under the Indo-US Exchange Programme (Fulbright-Hay Programme).
A keen lover of nature, Naik reforested the bald Andhari hill and the forest around it in Jharsauguda district after his retirement. Though Andhari was a dense forest and a habitat for wild animals, in the 80s it lost most of its 1,000-hectare tree cover due to indiscriminate felling of trees. Guided by him, Naik’s son and local villagers initiated the conservation of the Andhari forest with community participation.
In 2013, the Andhari Vana Suraksha Samiti, started by him, was given the ‘Prakriti Mitra’ award. In 2012, he was appointed as the honorary Wildlife Warden for the Jharsuguda district. ‘Doordarshan’ produced and telecast a documentary film depicting the life and works of Dr Naik.
