We mourn the sad demise of our common friend Mr Krishnan, who left us for his heavenly abode on 25 July 2025. Born on January 11 1940 at Nagpur, Mr Krishnan took his primary education at Bishop Cotton School, and did his matriculation from Saraswati Vidyalaya, both at Nagpur. His father Mr P.M. Ramaiah was co-founder of the Saraswati Vidyalaya. Though basically a Nagpur-born Tamilian, he had picked up Hindi and Marathi very well, besides being fluent in Tamil and English. He obtained his M.Sc. (Applied Geology) degree from the Nagpur University in 1963 and served in the GSI and IBM in the mineral exploration wings in Rajasthan and thereafter in the Bhiwapur gold deposit in Nagpur district, Maharashtra. Upon getting deputed by the GSI, he worked at
Lusaka, Zambia, from 1976 onwards. He joined Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines (ZCCM) at Zambia 1979 after resigning from GSI, starting his new career in a copper mine at Mufulira. He rose to the post of Senior Geologist (senior staff), Astt. Chief Geologist (divisional officer) soon after and finally Chief Geologist, a post he held for 4 years. Mr Krishnan returned back to India in 1990 after a 15-year stay. He has authored a book on copper deposits, complete with maps and analytical reports.
“He liked playing golf, tennis, squash and was a swimmer. He also did Yoga every morning. In fact, he joked that he obtained his pilot’s licence before he got his motor driving licence,” according to his daughter who was in awe of her father. Despite being a widely travelled person, Nagpur remained dear to his heart. Upon reaching Nagpur, he reconnected with his old friends, given his decades of pleasant memories of the Orange City and its people. As his son Mr Shriram Krishnan states “my father was the personification of good habits and great health. Until the very end he would only take the stairs to get to his third storey apartment. He belonged to an older generation where values and principles meant everything. His contribution to the copper mining in Zambia was so significant that he was contracted by M/s Shapurji Pallonji & Co to go back to Zambia at the ripe old age of 70 for further prospecting. Even at that age he was fit enough to rough it out in the African bushes for several months. Our dad led a blessed life and we are blessed to call him our daddy. He will be missed and remembered by all of us forever”.
Mr Krishnan had worked as a contributory faculty member at the RTM University Department of Geology, Nagpur, for nearly five years post his arrival at Nagpur and was a regular attendee of GGS meetings and lectures, workshops and seminars. He had to shift to Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, in 2023 owing to his wife’s indifferent health.
Mr Krishnan breathed his last on 25 July 2025, succumbing to a heart attack, leaving behind his wife Mrs Jamuna and a son and daughter to mourn the sad loss. “He lived
life gallantly on his own terms and was an inspiration to the younger generations. He went away the same way, he had lived his life,” according to his daughter.

U. L. Pitale¹ and C. L. Pitale²

¹Director (SG) (Retd.), Geological Survey of India

²Suptdg. Mining Geologist (Retd.), Indian Bureau of Mines