DR ABDUL GAFFAR KHAN PROFESSOR OF POULTRY SCIENCE IS NO MORE

DR A.G. KHAN was born in Seoni of Madhya Pradesh on 12.2.1936 in the family of late shri Basarat Khan.

Dr Khan was very active in the sports during college life and was Hockey captain and also Volleyball captain. As we have said earlier also, this was the golden period of the college where a student has to participate equally in curricular and extra curricular activities. This college was famous in organizing sports, cultural programs and had its reputation with winning many medals in these fields. Dr Khan took his BVSc degree from this college in 1958. He preferred to join field though yet , there was no water tight compartment between field and college. He served the state veterinary department between 24.8.58 to 12.3.1967. 

Dr Khan did his MVSc in 1966 and came in the services of Jawaharlal Nehru Krishi Vishwa Vidyalaya. At that time , both dairy and poultry were very small units and were part of department of livestock management. I think in the year 1972 or so ,a poultry scheme came from ICAR under Dr BS Sathe who was professor of the department (he was also in-charge of cultural activities of the college and Dr PG Najpande has participated in many cultural activities under his guidance ) and Dr Khan was working under Dr Sathe. Soon ,Dr Sathe left the college to join NABARD and it was Dr Khan who took the mantle to lead the work. Soon , funds were allotted by ICAR and a whole building of Poultry science came up at our livestock farm , Adhartal. All credit must go to Dr A G Khan who started Poultry unit from scratch and appointed many subordinate staff (I remember Drs Poulos,Chakrabarty and Mrs Chakrabarty, PN Shrivastava and many others-The present staff Drs Bhardwaz,Nema, Atkare etc are students of Dr Khan who were groomed by him ).

The poultry unit was given assignment to develop layers which can produced more than 200 eggs per year and Dr Khan and his team did it very efficiently. Not only this,he  developed a small but colored hen (as colored birds are preferred by village folk) named it NARMADA J which could well be maintained in the backyard of the farmer.

For his outstanding works, Dr Khan was awarded Hooker Award in 83-85 and he was decorated with Faqruddin Ali Ahmad Award in 93-95 by ICAR

I have no hesitation in mentioning that this was the Jabalpur Veterinary College whose staff received national awards like Rafi Ahmad Kidwai award, Faqruddin Ali Ahmad Award or National fellow award from ICAR and no faculty member either of Agriculture or Agriculture Engineering could compete with  veterinary faculty in that respect.

Dr AG Khan retired from active services of JNKVV in the year 1996.

Even after retirement, Dr Khan remained attached to this college and was an active member of Jabalpur veterinary college alumni association. He was elected President of JVCAA in the year 2004 and did good work .

Dr Khan was in real sense a field person and was knowing well what is beneficial to our farmers. For this reason, he continued to provide his services to the poultry owners particularly of Maharashtra state.

Recently, Dr AG Khan was nominated as Member , Board of Management, Nanaji Deshmukh Veterinary university, Jabalpur and was participating in all vishwa vidyalaya activities very enthusiastically . However, he developed brain tumor which proved fatal to his health. 

He has survived by his one son and one daughter.

We pray to the God to give eternal peace to the soul of Dr AG Khan and courage to the bereaved family to bear this loss.

DR R P AWADHIYA, PROFESSOR OF PATHOLOGY IS NO MORE

It is a sad news that Dr RP Awadhiya has expired on 29th April, 2016 at Jabalpur. We pray that his soul rests in peace and may God provide courage to the bereaved family to bear this loss..

Dr Ram Prasad Awadhiya was born in Gorakhpur village of district Mandla on 27.2.1933 in  the house of shri Haree Din Awadhiya.

This present college was established on 8th July 1948 as CP and Barar college of Veterinary sciences, Jabalpur and was admitting domicile candidates on stipend basis. Dr Awadhiya graduated from this college in 1955 . At that time, both college and field were interlinked and persons were interchangeable. However, being a brilliant veterinarian , he was allowed to do MVSc from Mathura veterinary college as post graduation was yet to start at Jabalpur. He did his post graduation in Pathology under the supervision of Dr CM Singh (who later shifted to HAU and then IVRI).

At that time Mhow veterinary college was having new establishment hence Dr Awadhiya was posted at this college for some time . At that time , Dr CN Pandit was head of Pathology department at Mhow.

Though American land grand pattern has entered in the country in the form of Pantnagar Agriculture University in 1960, yet our veterinary education was still under influence of British system where many MRCVS were directors of veterinary services of different states and FRVCS ( follow of Royal Veterinary College, Sweden) was considered highest degree a college teacher should acquire. Dr Awadhiya was awarded FRVCS from Sweden in 1968 and then he joined Jabalpur veterinary college.

This college had been under the influence of Dr MY Mangrulkar, MRCVS who was a renowned Pathologist and was Principal of the college as well as Head of the department till his retirement in 1964. This Pathology department was encompassed with Bacteriology and Parasitology , as well and was known as Path,Bact and Para- the latter two departments separated from the parent department in 1965 or so and Pathology remained the sole subject of the department. As far as my memory goes Dr RP Awadhiya has headed this department for some time as he was state professor of pathology.

However, in 1963/1964 Jawaharlal Nehru Krishi Vishwa Vidyalaya came in existence making Jabalpur veterinary college as its constituent college. Statutes were enacted , and old titles like MRCVS, FRVCS have been made redundant .

Instead , Ph.D was made essential for the post of Professor and all the state professors were reduced to the category of associate professor. Thus, Dr RP Awadhiya was made associate professor of pathology and Dr JL Vegad joined the department as University Professor and Head.

I may say this is a destiny which plays many roles- many times unknowingly. Otherwise, how it happened that the man was considered having highest degree was refused to have highest degree (Ph.D) for professorship  . In fact, Dr Awadhiya has faced many hardships in his life.

Despite such set back, Dr Awadhiya has not disheartened and again engaged himself in acquiring the highest degree, though his research and teaching experience were much larger than the degree. He completed his Ph.D degree in 1980 under the supervision of Dr JL Vegad.

No doubt , combination of brilliance of teacher and taught resulted in a good research work on inflammation.; this resulted in Dr RP Awadhiya and two more persons (Dr JL Vegad and Dr Dhodapkar ) being recipients of  prestigious ICAR Rafi Ahmad Kidwai award which happened first time  in whole of JNKVV. His one post graduate student had been winner of ICAR Jawaharlal Nehru award for his Ph.D. thesis.

At that time when Dr Awadhiya was doing graduation from Jabalpur, all students have to participate in sports, and other extra curricular activities. He won athelete championship of the college in 1954. Dr Awadhiya has remained NCC officer, hostel warden for many years and guided the students properly in these fields also. He was always admired for his histopathological studies and many professionals came to Dr Awadhiya to take a second opinion on complicated cases including cancer cases.

He has left a great legacy behind him and a lot of students who were shaped by Professor RP Awadhiya. We are proud of such alumni and teachers of this college. Really Dr Awadhiya is a shining star of our college.