Himmatrao Bawaskar

In 2022, Bawaskar was awarded India's third highest civil award, the Padma Shri.

As of 2016 he had published over 70 research articles. and his work has led the fatalities due to scorpion sting to drop from a high of 44% to <1%.

He completed his studies at Government Medical College and Hospital, Nagpur. At Nagpur, he faced class- and caste-based discrimination and had to take a leave of absence for mental health reasons. He later completed an MD from the B. J. Medical College, Pune in 1981.

At Birwadi, he witnessed high fatality rates of 8–40% due to the stings of Hottentotta tamulus scorpions; children being majority of the victims. The venom mainly affects the cardiovascular and pulmonary system, eventually leading to a pulmonary oedema, which may cause death. He compiled the findings and further tests were carried out at the Haffkine Institute in Mumbai. These letter stating these findings were published in The Lancet in 1978.

After his studies in Nagpur, Bawaskar was appointed in 1976 to a government-funded primary health centre in Birwadi, in Raigad district. Over the next 40 years of medical career, Bawaskar spent most of his time in the rural Konkan region of Maharashtra, at the foothills of Western ghats.