JOURNALIST, ACTIVIST AND CHRONICLER OF COORG

P. T. Bopanna (born 30 June 1950) is an author and journalist from Kodagu (Coorg) in Karnataka, India. Palanganda Thimmaiah Bopanna has worked for some of the leading Indian English dailies, including The Times of India, Bengaluru, for 12 years (Principal Correspondent), and The Pioneer (New Delhi), as their Special Correspondent (Bengaluru) for 13 years. He has written nine books.

Early life:
Bopanna completed his schooling at Gonikoppal in Kodagu. He obtained his B.A. degree (Economics) from Madras University (Chennai) and M.A. in Political Science from Karnatak University, Dharwad. He also has a post-graduate diploma in journalism from Bhavans, Mumbai, where he was a student of well-known journalist M.V. Kamath.

Career:
Bopanna began his journalistic career in 1981 as the Coorg Correspondent of The Hindu newspaper. He briefly worked with The Times of Deccan at Bengaluru, where he was mentored by veteran journalist T.J.S. George.
He served for 12 years with The Times of India, Bangalore (June 1984), starting as a Reporter and exiting as Principal Correspondent. Subsequently, he worked for 13 years as Special Correspondent with The Pioneer (New Delhi) at Bengaluru from August 1996. He covered mostly political news for the paper. For six years he served as Bangalore Stringer (from 1998) of the Associated Press, an American news agency. He covered general news with emphasis on human interest stories. He taught journalism for six years to undergraduate and post-graduate students from 2001 to 2006. For two years, he taught at Surana College, Bengaluru, two years at Jain College, Bengaluru, and two years at Sri Sri Institute of Media Studies, Bengaluru.

Awards:
Bopanna won two awards in 1986 instituted by the Bangalore Reporters' Guild for best crime story and scoop of the year.
His book ‘The Romance of Indian Coffee’ won the prestigious Gourmand international award under the ‘Best in the World’ coffee book category in 2015.