Mr. Vijay Raghavan Thiruvadi has been my patient and friend for over 15 years. That we had common interests made the bond between us strong. He had multiple health problems and these needed constant care and surveillance. That he lived 82 years with this many serious health problems, a full life, is m itself a lesson for others.
He died suddenly of a heart attack yesterday morning leaving a legion of nature lovers grieving. Vijay was justifiably famous for his encyclopedic knowledge of trees of the subcontinent, especially those one sees in the urban set up such as in the city of Bengaluru. His weekly walks taking a group of enthusiasts in Lalbagh were a must for nature lovers who lived in the city and also those who visited from out side. In one of my recent articles, when I was at a loss to identify a set of trees that I had came across and sought his help. I was rewarded not only with the name of the tree but also with the ancestry and the legend associated with it [ Kauri Pine].
He was also a Historian and based his talks on well researched facts, His walks in the Lalbagh and Cubbon park garden and in the sprawling campus of the MEG center were like history books of the past 300 years opened in front of you. Adding to the knowledge, a flair for story telling and keeping himself in the back ground made Vijay a unique person.
His death is an irreparable loss
