Naresh Mitra, special correspondent of The Times of India, passed away in a Guwahati hospital early on Monday. He was undergoing treatment for serious head injuries that he sustained while returning home from work around 10.30 pm on November 22. According to family members, doctors believe that his injuries were caused by an assault.

Erudite, sincere and hardworking, Mitra had turned 46 on December 6. He leaves behind his wife, Biva, and five-year-old daughter, Bithika.

Ever since he joined TOI’s northeast bureau in 2005, Mitra played a key role in planning and generating news, features and pictures for the paper. He covered a number of subjects ranging from politics, business, defence, human rights to wildlife and environment.

Owing to his balanced reporting, Mitra had won innumerable hearts both within and outside of TOI. Across the northeast, people from all walks of life acknowledged him as a journalist whose fairness was beyond question. His polite and helpful disposition prompted his colleagues to proudly call him « a man with a heart of gold ».

Mitra’s extraordinary love for animals and birds saw him also emerge as one of the region’s finest wildlife and environment journalists. He practised what he wrote about nature and wildlife. « I cannot have them because I love them, » he would say whenever he was offered any dish of animal and bird meat.

In his passing, members of Guwahati Press Club, Bharatiya Gorkha Parisangh and many other organisations expressed their heartfelt condolences.

Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal said, « Naresh Mitra proved his capabilities as a journalist by conveying the state’s social, political developments in the national platform. His untimely death has caused an irreparable loss to journalism and the society of the state. »

Source: The Times of India / NDTV