Dr Anand Pandurangi

Dr Anand Krishnarao Pandurangi, a psychiatrist and Karnataka Rajyotsava awardee who spent decades bringing mental healthcare into the villages and schools of north Karnataka, died in the early hours of 24 September 2026 at a private hospital in Dharwad after a heart attack. He was 74. The Hindu and other Indian outlets reported the news the same day, and his cremation was held that night with full state honours.

Born Anand Krishnarao Pandurangi, he trained in medicine at Karnataka Medical College (later the Karnataka Institute of Medical Sciences) in Hubli and took a postgraduate psychiatric qualification (D.P.M.) through Karnataka University in Dharwad. Further training under Dr B.M. Debasikdar in Miraj preceded his return to Dharwad, where he founded and led Pandurangi Hospital as a consulting psychiatrist (M.B.B.S., D.P.M., FIPS). Colleagues and patients remembered him less for academic papers than for decades of clinic work and for insisting that mental illness in rural Karnataka could not be treated only from behind a hospital desk.

He took psychiatric care beyond hospital walls through counselling programmes in schools and colleges, mental health camps in towns and villages, and training for teachers to spot adolescent distress. At a time when psychiatric help was scarce outside big cities and stigma kept many families from seeking it, he was known for treating addiction, marital and parental conflict, and the emotional lives of patients as seriously as their symptoms. Outside medicine he remained active in Dharwad civic and literary life, including programmes of the Karnataka Vidyavardhaka Sangha.

His work was recognised with the Eminent Psychiatrist Award (2010), the Distinguished Psychiatrist Award for community psychiatry (2011), the Dr Katiil Appu Pai National Memorial Award (2017), an honorary doctorate from Karnatak University (2018), and a Karnataka Rajyotsava Award. His hospital grew into a family practice: his wife Anupama is a counselling psychologist, and his son Dr Aditya Pandurangi followed him into psychiatry.

Condolences came from Karnataka's political leadership, including Union Minister Pralhad Joshi and former chief ministers Jagadish Shettar and Basavaraj Bommai. Crowds visited the family residence at Michigan Compound in Dharwad to pay last respects. He is survived by his wife Anupama and his son Aditya.