On this World Mosquito Day, a family residing at Marredpally is calling attention to contributions of Ratnam Pillai, who is thought to have helped Sir Ronald Ross establish female anopheles mosquito as the vector for malarial parasite.
The family has been striving for years to garner recognition for their grandfather’s work. They claim Dr. Pillai had pointed out the anopheles mosquito to Dr. Ross and also helped collect more of them from the waters of Hussainsagar. “We have learnt that our grandfather had pointed out an odd mosquito perched on a wall to Dr. Ross. Dr. Pillai had trained in Tamil Nadu and was a Subedar Major with the 19th Madras Infantry Regiment. We would like to see that his contributions are recognised and honoured,” said Samuel Paupens, Dr. Pillai’s grandson, while recounting his decade-long effort to reach out to the government.
The land that houses the Ronald Ross Institute of Parasitology at Begumpet today was a hospital for India troops commanded by the British crown. Dr. Ross’s ground-breaking findings, made at the hospital, were published by the British Medical Journal in 1897. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1902 for identifying the malarial vector and depicting the parasite’s life-cycle within the mosquito. P. Anuradha Reddy of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) recollects that the Paupens had came out with their claims with a photograph showing Dr. Pillai in a group with Dr. Ross. The family believes the photo was shot by the legendary photographer Raja Deen Dayal. “We made efforts to locate the grave of Dr. Pillai. The family is aware that he was buried at Bhoiguda, but they do not know just where the grave is,” Ms. Reddy said.
When contacted, B. Redya Naik, the institute’s director, said the claims require rigorous verification before they can formally be recognised. He also said Dr. Ross’s family in the U.K. had expressed doubts about the person thought to be Dr. Ross in the photograph that the Paupens have as proof of association between the Nobel laureate and Dr. Pillai.
Mr. Paupens admitted that the family’s search for their paternal grandfather’s grave has been unsuccessful. They have, however, preserved relics from Dr. Pillai’s time—his medals and a sword—in the hope that they would stand testimony for their patriarch.
