By John B Monteiro
Mangaluru, Nov 12: Professor H P C Shetty, a low-profile, high class specialist in fisheries education, administration and and research, passed away in Mangaluru on November 11.
Prof H P C Shetty was the first director of instruction of Fisheries College in Mangaluru, established in 1959, the first such college in India. Prof Shetty was responsible for setting its syllabus and developing its campus. He was involved in replicating the Mangalore Fisheries College model elsewhere in India and even abroad.
Born on May 17, 1930, Handady Palthamane Chandrashekara Shetty is the fifth child of Melpady Krishnayya and Puttamma Shetty. He had his early education at Brahmavar, followed by Milagres High School, Kallianpur and intermediate at St Aloysius College, Mangaluru. He did two post-graduate degrees (MA and MSc) in Zoology and Biology from Madras Christian College. Completing his studies in 1956, Prof Shetty held a series of administrative, teaching, research and consultancy jobs in India and abroad.
Prof Shetty began his career as officer-in-charge of Mahanady Estuarine Fisheries Research Investigation, Odisha. Working in different capacities at the Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute, he led the Documentation Centre, Riverine and Lacustrine Division and the All India Coordinated Research Project on Carp Spawn Prospecting and Collection Techniques. As director of instruction (fisheries) of Fisheries College, Mangaluru, he laid the foundation of the education process in fisheries. He also contributed to the establishment of fisheries colleges in different parts of India, providing the basic plan for the infrastructure and the course contents. This took him to FAO, Rome, as Aquaculture Consultant for preparing curriculum for post-graduate degree programmes in Nigeria, Brazil and the Philippines.
After being vice-chancellor of University of Agriculture, Bengaluru, in 1989, Prof Shetty worked abroad in different capacities as fisheries consultant to Government of Cambodia, senior aquaculturist, FAO and inland fisheries advisor to International Mekong Committee, Bangkok. His contribution to research, education, training and policy issues in fisheries over a period of 50 years has been recognised on a global basis. He has been executive councilor of Asian Fisheries Society and founder-chairman of its Indian branch. Having participated in several international conferences, Prof Shetty has to his credit over150 research papers and several manuals and reports. He is the recipient of Asian Fisheries Award conferred by the Asian Fisheries Society. Prof Shetty continued to serve on several national and international committees and advisory boards on fisheries.
Prof Shetty married Manorama in 1954. They have two sons and a daughter - all well settled - and six grandchildren. His sense of achievement is that he is recognised as a leading fisheries educator at the global level, with the curriculum developed by him being followed in several parts of the world. Though he had overseen or judged a score of PhD theses, his only regret was that he could not do his formal PhD. He was awarded the Doctorate of Science (Honoris Causa) by the University of Animal & Fishery Sciences, Kolkata, in recognition of his 'outstanding research and education in the country and internationally' in 2009. The latest responsibility he had taken on was to promote the Bangkok-based TVR Pillai Aquatic Foundation in memory of his one-time senior.