Udupi: Renowned Udupi based Ecologist Harish R Bhat (47) died following brain haemorrhage when he was delivering a lecture for students at Alva’s college in Moodbidri on Saturday. He lost his life when the college authorities tried to transport him to Mangaluru for treatment. He is survived by his wife and a 6 year old daughter. He was a son of Innanje Undar based Ramakrishna Bhat and Sumathi R.

He completed his formal education at Udupi Christian High School, Board High School and MGM College in Udupi. He has been serving as a scientist for the last 20 years at Centre for Ecology Sciences of Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru.

As an Ecologist, he played a significant role during the implementation of various development projects in Karnataka including HPCL pipeline project crossing protected forest zone of Charmadi Ghat. He also served as a member of various committees formed to prepare syllabus for higher education whereas he presented number of research papers in national and international level seminars, events and others.

Political leaders including Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertiliser Ananth Kumar, Alva’s Education Foundation President Mohan Alva, Kapu MLA Vinay Kumar Sorake, locals, his relatives rushed into his residence in Udupi soon after the news over his death spread across the state on Saturday.