Abstract
Gopendra Kumar was born in Lucknow on 27th November 1936. His father, Dr S. N. Mathur, was a renowned professor of Physiology. He was a founder member of the physiology department at the famous King George Medical College of Lucknow. Gopendra, thus in a true sense was a chip off the old block. He graduated in 1956 and received a post-graduate degree in Geology in 1958 from the University of Lucknow. In those days advertisements for jobs in geology were erratic. He joined as a Research Scholar specialising in micro-foraminifera. Soon he got a job in the Oil and Natural Gas Commission (now Corporation) and was posted at a drill site. He switched to the Geological Survey of India and was posted in the Base Metal Unit with an assignment in the Himalaya. Thereafter, he continued to work in the Himalaya, as a field mapper, stratigrapher, and palaeontologist. He explored many virgin areas and unravelled the complicated geology of those terrains, thereby laying the foundation of the geology and structure of the Lesser Himalaya of Uttarakhand. After he was shifted from UP Circle to the Himalayan Geology Division, he made forays in Jammu and synthesised the geology of that area. Correlation of unfossiliferous rocks is a difficult task, but Gopendra did it with great success.
As a Convenor of an International Geological Correlation Project, he made distinct contributions to the Precambrian-Cambrian Boundary in Himachal, Kashmir, and Uttarakhand. He was the first to report a Cambrian trilobite identified at a generic level from the Lesser Himalaya, thereafter, he continued to contribute to the biostratigraphy of the Cambrian trilobites, Small Shelly Fauna, and ichno-fossils. For his contributions to geology, he was decorated with the National Mineral Award, and a species of trilobite was named after him (Drepanopyge gopeni).
On being shifted to Arunachal Pradesh as its head, Gopendra sifted grain from the chaff and presented a cogent picture of that little-understood area.
Towards the later part of his career, he broke new ground and made pioneering contributions to the Ganga plains. For a short duration, he was on deputation to the Cement Corporation of India, where too he acquitted himself creditably. For several years he was on the Faculty of GSI Training Institute and was held in high esteem by trainee officers.
He represented India at International Conferences in Italy and the then USSR. He had around 100 publications to his credit, many of them philosophical and provoking fresh thinking and providing fodder for further research. Two of his publications need special mention: Geology of Arunachal Pradesh and, Geology of Uttar Pradesh and Uttaranchal, both published by the Geological Society of India, in 1997 and 2005 respectively.
Gopendra was a soft-spoken gentleman dyed in Lucknow Culture, yet he never compromised and stood stubbornly to the unscientific views of some bosses. He was helpful to youngsters and a very reliable and sincere friend to his peers. He was the Fellow of the Palaeontological Society of India.
Such was versatile Gopendra, who breathed his last on June 5, 2024, at Patiala, where he was staying with his elder daughter, Dr Nidhi, and his son-in-law Dr Manoj Mathur. He leaves behind his charming wife Manju and two adorable daughters, Nidhi and Shilpi, and four grandchildren. I sincerely join them in mourning the death of Gopendra.
To me, it is very sad to find my close friends depart in quick succession (V.P. Sharma, K.S. Valdiya, S.B. Bhatia, Indra Bir, S.V. Srikantia), which gives me a feeling of forlornness. But it cannot be helped, it is the law of the Almighty. His death is a great loss to the Himalayan Geology. His contributions to Earth Science have made him immortal and he shall continue to live in the hearts of his numerous colleagues, trainee officers, and innumerable admirers.