  We searched for a correlation between the two anomalous properties of K
giants: Li enhancement and IR excess from an unbiased survey of a large sample
of RGB stars. A sample of 2000 low-mass K giants with accurate astrometry from
the Hipparcos catalog was chosen for which Li abundances have been determined
from low-resolution spectra. Far-infrared data were collected from the $WISE$
and $IRAS$ catalogs. To probe the correlation between the two anomalies, we
supplemented 15 Li-rich K giants discovered from this sample with 25 known
Li-rich K giants from other studies. Dust shell evolutionary models and
spectral energy distributions were constructed using the code DUSTY to estimate
different dust shell properties, such as dust evolutionary time scales, dust
temperatures, and mass-loss rates. Among 2000 K giants, we found about two
dozen K giants with detectable far-IR excess, and surprisingly, none of them
are Li-rich. Similarly, the 15 new Li-rich K giants that were identified from
the same sample show no evidence of IR excess. Of the total 40 Li-rich K
giants, only 7 show IR excess. Important is that K giants with Li enhancement
and/or IR excess begin to appear only at the bump on the RGB. Results show that
K giants with IR excess are very rare, similar to K giants with Li enhancement.
This may be due to the rapid differential evolution of dust shell and Li
depletion compared to RGB evolutionary time scales. We also infer from the
results that during the bump evolution, giants probably undergo some internal
changes, which are perhaps the cause of mass-loss and Li-enhancement events.
However, the available observational results do not ascertain that these
properties are correlated. That a few Li-rich giants have IR excess seems to be
pure coincidence.

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics