Dr. Anjan Chatterjee…GSI (retd.)
Krishnanunni Sir's death in June 2020 was another very sad news in the chain of such shocking losses during 2020. We lost so many near and dear colleagues in a short span.
A very straight forward and transparent personality he was. Even as Director he supported the Scientific Offrs Assn activities and gave valuable suggestions during our most turbulent phase in 1989-93. I still remember that once in 1991 we had a SOA Council Meeting in Kolkata. We were at the meeting venue in the office till dark. Krishnanunni Sir was there. When someone told him that as a Director how is he so actively involved in deliberations for the betterment of careers of officers whose future is jeopardised? He smiled, didn't make any filmy dialogues as the saviour but said two lines " I am sure I will become the no. 2 at a particular time. No one can rob me of my seniority and I don't aspire to be no.1."
Again the Vintage Krishnanunni came alive in mid 1992. I was facing some personal problems but was transferred to NER Shillong wef July 1992. He was HoD, NR, then. That was the domain of Late Shri Balram Singh Yadav, Our then Minister, who was MP from Etawah. I spoke to Krishnanunni Sir one evening sometime in May 1992, requesting him for persuading the DG Sh C. P. Vohra to cancel my transfer. He said it cannot be done through normal requests and representations anyway now. He told me to try the political channel that could work. My friend and classmate Dr Shrikant Jichkar was MP (Rajya Sabha) then. It clicked with me and the transfer was cancelled. The point I would like to emphasize is that a DDG rank officer was genuinely concerned about the state of affairs and advised me, his Jr colleague the remedy. Though in principle, doing such political machination hurts one's conscience, seeing necessities and needs one (that's me) succumbs to his principles if any during such critical moments. Sadly, a few months later Krishnanunni Sir was transferred to NER due to some different reasons. He had refused to bend to unwritten political orders from Delhi.
A photo geologist and remote sending expert of repute, he had initiated steps for best use of available remote sensing data to the hilt.