BANGALORE: Pemanda Monappa Belliappa, a retired IAS officer from Tamil Nadu, has been voted as the Coorg person of the year by the website www.coorgtourisminfo.com, a new portal of Coorg. This comes on the heels of another honour: He was decorated with the title of the ‘Most Excellent Order of the Member of the British Empire (MBE) bestowed on him in 2011 by the Queen of England for his contribution towards improving the Indo-UK relationship in his capacity as the president of the Association of British Scholars (ABS).
Speaking to City Express, Belliappa said, “I am grateful to have been selected for this honour. I would like to dedicate this award to my parents. It is a tribute to their identity.” Despite having settled in Chennai, Tamil Nadu for many years and having developed his own identity” his ties to Coorg was through his parents. “I have lived outside Coorg all my life. I have evolved in my own way. However, my parents were full-blooded Coorgis,” he said.
Belliappa established the ‘Pemanda Monappa Scholarship’ in Cambridge University in the memory of his late father, Pemanda Monappa, former Karnataka Inspector General of Police. This scholarship will enable one student from the Southern states of India to pursue a post-graduation course in England.
In spite of his upbringing outside Coorg, he has retained his connections to the place and his family there. “After my father died, I inherited land in Coorg. Since I no longer live there, I did not know what to do with the land. After consulting my mother on the course of action, I distributed the land among close relatives. I do travel to Coorg every year and hope to come there soon,” he said.
His ties with Coorg and its culture still hold strong as he fondly speaks of Hockey and Coorg. “Though I play tennis, I understand that hockey is an integral part of the Kodava Community and the families come together to play the game annually. It is a great way to bring together the community and families,” said this former captain of Madras
University tennis team.
In his 35-year-long service, he has occupied important posts such as District Collector, head of the National Hydro Electric Corporation of India and the Chairman and Managing Director for Rural Electrification Corporation of India.
He was also the leader and member of several Indian delegations like the ESCAP, UNIDO, World Bank among other leading international institutions. He served as the Chairman of International Workshop on ‘Clean Technologies’ organised by the Regional Institute of Environmental Technology (RIET) Singapore, a European Union sponsored institution working on sustainable technology.