On May 10, 2025, the decomposed body of Padma Shri awardee Dr. Subbanna Ayyappan—India’s aquaculture pioneer and architect of the Blue Revolution—was found floating in the Cauvery River in Srirangapatna, Karnataka. Official statements hint at possible suicide, but scratch the surface and the case reveals troubling patterns disturbingly familiar to followers of unexplained deaths among Indian scientists.
Ayyappan, the first fisheries scientist to rise to Director General of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), transformed India’s fish production through a systematised integration of scientific aquaculture and rural development. He held multiple high-ranking positions including Secretary of DARE, Vice-Chancellor of CAU Imphal, and Chairman of NABL at the time of his death. He was no ordinary bureaucrat—he was an institution in himself.
So why did this man, who lived a life of mission-driven science, allegedly throw himself into a river, leaving behind no suicide…