Apart from numerous accolades that he received during his chequered career, Kalita was also awarded the ML Kath Baruah Award for investigative journalism. Kalita had indepth knowledge of myriad issues relating to the ethnic tribes not only of Assam but the entire North-east. Gauri Shankar Kalita as a journalist was instrumental in raising pertinent issues in the proper perspective relating to the state of Assam. Having exhaustive cognition and understanding of the problems plaguing the state, he was able to create a public opinion through his writings. His untimely demise will find it hard to fill this void.

At the time of his death he was the editor of the Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh edition of ‘The Sentinel’, one of the leading dailies of the region from which he had started his journalistic career two decades back. In between he had brief stints with another English daily, ‘The North East Times’ and leading Assamese daily, ‘Janasadharan’ as their editor. He has to his credit two published books. Kalita was also associated with several periodicals and publications where he rendered commendable services through his thought-provoking writings.

An outstanding passout from the prestigious Ramkrishna Mission School, Deogarh previously in Bihar and now in Jharkhand, Kalita completed his graduation with Honours in Zoology from the coveted Cotton College in Guwahati. Born in 1955, at Sarupathar in Golaghat district of Eastern Assam, Kalita leaves behind his wife who is a college lecturer, mother and other siblings.