A Purulia youth engaged in researching Antartica’s climate died at the world’s southern tip.
Suvojit Sen (23) was part of the 37th Indian Scientific Expedition to Antartica, a project his family said sees few applicants owing to the risks it involves.
Brother Subhankar was informed of his death on March 27; the family is unaware of when his body will reach them.
Goa-based National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research (NCAOR), where Suvojit was employed, said in a release: “He met with an accident during convoy operations at Ice Shelf and suffered major trauma late March 26. He was immediately rushed towards the expedition vessel and doctors joined with medical help. Unfortunately, attempts to revive him went in vain.”
The convoy operation was heading from the Indian Research Base, Maitri, to Ice Shelf, a distance of approximately 80 km.
Subhankar finally told father Dilip Sen and mother Mukta of Suvojit’s death on Thursday. They were shell-shocked and unable to speak when TOI visited their home in Purulia’s Dulmi-Nadhia locality.
Suvojit graduated from JK College in Purulia. His outstanding Geology scores in 2014 helped him get into IIT Bhubaneswar for his Masters.
Suvojit applied for the 37th ISEA project last year and was selected. He left home on October 19, 2017.
Subhankar said: “Suvojit would call us from Antartica regularly and tell us of his experiences amid ice and snow. He was very happy with his work and the opportunity to have a unique experience so early in his career. Suvojit was staying with his colleagues at a base camp named Maitri. He would tell us it felt like being in a completely different world.”
The family said that during his last call on March 24, Suvojit said his project was nearing completion and that he would be returning home before his 24th birthday on April 13 and be around for Subhankar’s wedding on April 26.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> News> City News> Kolkata News / TNN / March 30th, 2018
Makaibari tea packets kept in a room at the garden
Makaibari (Kurseong):
The “Rajah” of Makaibari tea has decided to “gift” his crown to workers.
Swaraj Kumar Banerjee, more famous as Rajah Banerjee, said on Thursday he would “gift” his 12 per cent shares in the marquee estate to the workers.
Barely a fortnight ago on March 16, Rajah had declared that he would exit Makaibari by selling his 12 per cent share to the management of the garden led by the Calcutta-based Luxmi Group.
That announcement had come exactly a year after Rajah’s bungalow at Makaibari was gutted in a fire, hastening the 70-year-old’s plans to hang up his planter’s boots.
If the decision is approved under corporate laws, this will possibly be the first time in the history of Darjeeling tea that the owner of a garden will give up his shares for the workers.
“I will gift my 12 per cent share to the workers,” Rajah told a meeting in the garden on Thursday, stressing his aim was to empower the 600-odd workers.
Sources in the Luxmi Group in Calcutta welcomed the move “as long as it is permissible under the Companies Act”. “We have no problem if he wants to give away his shares. It is a welcome gesture. We have to see if this is permissible under the Companies Act,” a source said.
Industry observers said, however, that the share transfer could turn risky, especially in years of poor earnings. “If the garden does not make enough profits and distributes dividends, workers may feel let down and this could be a tricky situation,” one observer said.
Rajah had forged a “strategic tie-up” with the Luxmi Group in 2013 and retained the 12 per cent stake in the estate that his family had been running since taking it over in 1859.
Members of the Makaibari Joint Committee, which represents the workers, on Thursday expressed “gratitude” for the “gift”. Rajah made it clear, though, that “the management representative on the panel will not be entitled to the shares”.
Additional reporting by Sambit Saha in Calcutta
source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph,Calcutta,India / Home> West Bengal / by Vivek Chhetri / March 30th, 2018
The second edition of The Telegraph She Awards, presented by IIHM in association with Senco Gold & Diamonds and StarOm Realty, celebrated the achievements of seven extraordinary women from Bengal at JW Marriott on Thursday evening.
The winners were selected by a jury comprising US consul-general Craig L. Hall, danseuse Tanusree Shankar and actress Koel Mallick. Arundhati Bhattacharya, the former chairperson of State Bank of India, was inducted into The Telegraph She Awards Hall of Fame.
“If you really want to do something and find it interesting, you will always find a way of learning what you need to learn. So one needs to be learning throughout life,” said Bhattacharya, after receiving the award from filmmaker Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury and fashion designer Anamika Khanna.
source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph,Calcutta,India / Home> Calcutta / March 30th, 2018
A Good Friday tradition among workers from Odisha continues at former colonial firm
This Good Friday, the headquarters of the 154-year old Andrew Yule Company resonated with verses from the Bhagavat Gita along with a puja for Lord Jagannath.
A practice started by the Odisha employees of this erstwhile colonial managing agency, under the patronage of Scotsman David Yule has continued uninterrupted through the ups and downs of the company and marks its 100th year in 2018.
Heritage building
Yule House, the headquarters of AY, which managed cotton and jute mills, tea gardens, coal companies, railways and a printing press, with over 80,000 on its rolls in its heyday, is listed as a heritage building in the heart of Kolkata’s business district.
The company was set up in 1863 when Andrew Yule, a strapping Scottish entrepreneur arrived in Calcutta, the then imperial capital of India. He founded a company as a managing agency at a time when railways, telegraph and postal services were making a beginning in the country.
George Yule, Andrew ‘s elder brother took over the reins in 1875. David Yule assumed AY’s control, after his uncle’s death and by 1902, Andrew Yule managed over 30 businesses including a printing press and even a zamindari in Midnapore district, where it promoted agriculture, forestry , fisheries, roads schools, and healthcare facilities.
Among its many employees were several from Odisha. Says septuagenarian Praful Das from Kendrapara, a special invitee to the centenary celebrations: “ Four generations of our family have been working here and since those days, people of all faith have been participating in this puja…It was a small affair then… it has grown in pomp now.”
Fluctuating fortunes
AY’s fortunes dived with the abolition of the managing agency system in 1969 and nationalisation of the coal and the insurance industry. The process of government acquisition ended with AY becoming a public sector enterprise.
However, the puja tradition goes on. Bijoy Panda a third generation employee, explained that the priest comes from Puri carrying a bit of the flag that flies atop the Puri Jagannath Temple and some special offerings from the Temple. The first invite is sent to the titular King of Puri.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Kolkata / by Indrani Dutta / Kolkata – March 30th, 2018
Ramit Tandon at The Saturday Club. Picture: Arnab Mondal
There is something earnest about Ramit Tandon that strikes you instantly. Genial, confident and candid, the 25-year-old started playing squash full-time in September last year and has quickly moved up to become world number 65. Before he left for a training camp to Chennai ahead of the Commonwealth Games next month, t2 caught up with the boy from Lord Sinha Road.
How excited are you about the Commonwealth Games?
I am not feeling the butterflies yet! Once I get to the village and I see the other athletes… maybe then it will hit me. I haven’t processed the thought of being in Australia. I am happy to be home for 10 days with my family. The last week or so, I have been pushing myself hard. Also, squash is such an individual sport, you always enjoy being part of a team. That energy, where you have other people supporting you, means more than being on your own. I am trying not to stress too much. Of course, we will give our best. It is the biggest event for us this year.
When did you start playing squash?
My dad (Raman Tandon, The Saturday Club president) used to play squash. So, I followed him to the club and slowly got interested. By the time I was eight or nine, I started playing.
What’s great about the game?
Well, now my life revolves around squash. The last 10-15 years have been only squash. It’s been a big part of my life. The reason I like it is, it’s fast… in an hour you know the result. It’s a lot of fast thinking. My personality is similar. It’s taught me a lot of life lessons. There are so many different aspects of the game that have to be right to get to the end result.
Take us through your career till now…
I was a top-ranked junior in India from 2010-2012. I moved to the US for my education and graduated from Columbia University, with statistics. I was one of the best college squash players over there. At that point I wasn’t sure if I would play professionally because it is a hard sport to jump into. Cricket and tennis were more out there, more popular. It was a risk and I wanted to hedge myself before taking a risk. I felt I needed to finish my education first.
I worked in finance in New York for two years. Hedge fund job vs professional squash player… pick one… it’s a no-brainer. I mean I really wanted to play squash, but also I wanted to experience the work environment. While I worked there, I kept playing in a few tournaments here and there and got a few good results. The people I met at the hedge fund, like my CEO, were very supportive of my decision to go give it a shot. So, September 2017 I decided that I was going to start playing full-time. I am based in New York and Calcutta and I shuttle. I started off as 400 or something in the world and now I am 65.
Wow!
I have the belief. I am happy about the fact that I moved so quickly. When you start doing something full-time, there is a different sort of pressure to it. It’s hard when you’ve been sitting at the desk for two years crunching numbers.
What was the turning point?
So, Ali Farag, who is the current world number three, I beat him in a tournament in the US while working. I was ranked almost 500 in the world.
I would train quite a bit during the weekends and about three times during the week. Ramy Ashour, who is like the Roger Federer of squash, moved to New York and we became very close and we would train together on a daily basis. When I started working, I would train three-four times a week with him. Training with him gave me a lot of confidence. I think he was a big reason I was able to maintain my game while working.
People started talking after I beat Ali Farag. The buzz around me… people at work would be like… ‘Why don’t you go and play?’ But for me, it was very risky. Also, you are more comfortable on court when you know you have a job and you are not worried about winning or losing… you don’t have to worry about paying rent. I enjoyed that mindset. But then a lot of people around me started telling me… and I started to believe in it as well. I had a few more events which went well.
Then in a game, I lost to this guy who was among the top 20 in the world. I lost to him in five games. That’s when I realised that I was losing out on match experience. I was playing one or two tournaments a year, which wasn’t enough to compete at that level. I was enjoying my job, but I realised that squash gave me more happiness.
How has life changed?
It’s been a change of lifestyle for me. From sitting at my desk for eight to 10 hours a day to hitting the gym in the morning… then squash… then fitness again.
So, a much healthier lifestyle…
I don’t think it’s healthy (smiles). People think an athlete’s life is very healthy, it is not. It’s torture for the body. I can sense it… when I am hating the work I am doing, the tournaments go well after that. If I am enjoying the preparations and not pushing myself hard enough, my tournament doesn’t go well. In six months, I have realised that. We overdo it for sure and you need to because the competition is so high.
A lot of the hard training is based around the physical stuff and that’s the hard part. At night you are sleepless because you’ve been through so much. If you are a professional, there is no day off. At this level, no coach can tell you X amount of work is ideal for you. As a player, you’ve got to figure it out… how hard you can be pushed, when you need to slow down.
In the first phase, I went for a lot of tournaments where I overdid it. I realised I wasn’t as fresh as I should be. Sometimes, I didn’t train that hard. It’s all about finding that balance. In matches too, it is a fine line… when to be aggressive, when to stay calm. I am still learning every day. The first few months was just about finding a routine. Now, I think I have just stabilised into a routine. The challenge has been to get used to all the physical work, the travelling and finding the exact balance… which I am still figuring out.
What is your workout routine like?
I play for about a couple of hours in the morning, followed by a fitness session… could be gym or sprinting for another hour or two hours. Gym is at The Saturday Club… I work with Anwar Wahhab. He has been with me since I was eight or nine. By the time I am out, it is 1pm-2pm. Then it is time for lunch and then I am back training around 4pm. In the evening it is mostly skill and then maybe a relaxation session… swimming. I am back home by 8pm-8.30pm.
You need a strong core to prevent injuries. My sport requires a lot of speed and agility. It is all about developing strength without getting too bulky. For me, it is a lot of leg work and a lot of core work. I do sprinting sessions for the cardio. I do agility and footwork sessions for the quick turnings. I enjoy this the most. I do swimming mostly as recovery and cardio.
Have you picked up anything from Ramy Ashour?
He is very unique. Most of it is the mental side. I want to go into a match feeling how you go to office. On match days, I still wake up feeling it is an event, a festival. And that is never good.
What is your bigger goal?
By this year end, I would like to get into the 30s. I am happy with the progress so far. I feel I can still do better.
So, you are not easily happy?
I am not. I don’t know if it is a good thing or a bad thing. (Smiles)
KNOW RAMIT
Joined PSA World Tour in September 2017
Current world rank: 65
Was the ‘top male player’ of the Indian team that finished 2nd at the U-21 World Cup in 2012
Won 2 PSA world titles in 2017
Won 6 junior national titles
Captain, Indian junior team (2010-2012)
Asian Junior team championship winner and individual championship runner-up
I unwind: By following the markets!
Music fave: Marshmello.
Fave actors: Shah Rukh Khan, Leonardo DiCaprio.
Fave actress: Deepika Padukone, and Alia Bhatt because she watched my match in Bombay.
source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph,Calcutta,India / Home> Lifestyle / by Saionee Chakraborty / March 27th, 2018
Three hours of paddling before class and three hours in the evening, year after year, brought gold and silver for eight city girls representing their universities at a rowing championship in Chandigarh last week.
Teams from Jadavpur University (JU), Calcutta University (CU) and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Open University of Technology (MAKAUT) bagged golds in four categories – 2,000m fours, 500m and 2,000m heavyweight single scull and 2,000m lightweight – besides two silver and three bronze medals.
Rowing rivalry between university teams has a rich history, the most famous being The Boat Race – an annual contest between rowing crews from Oxford and Cambridge universities on the Thames.
The boat races on Sukhna Lake in Chandigarh earlier this month lived up to the legendary competitive spirit of the London races. One of the closest races was the 2,000m heavyweight women’s fours, in which the JU team finished just 1.5 seconds ahead of Punjab University.
“It was a wonderful feeling to beat the Punjab University team. It’s basically the same girls who participate in the national and the inter-university championships. They are a very strong team and we have a rivalry going. So, the win was special,” said Semanti Choudhury, who is doing her MSc in economics at JU.
Semanti and her team mates, as well as the girls from CU and MAKAUT start rowing in the Dhakuria Lakes at 5.30 every morning. The morning practice session goes on till 8.30am. In the evenings, they practise in boats or work out on rowing simulators at a rowing club.
The girls happily turn away from hanging out with friends as it interferes with their training schedule. “It’s easily 9.30pm by the time I can open my books. I study till midnight and the next morning I am at the club for practice,” Shramana Saha, a first-year English honours student at JU and part of the winning team in Chandigarh. “I have no social life and all my friends have come to accept that. Staying up late is not an option either.”
The other two girls in the the team were the Brahmachari sisters – Shreyaa and Shweta.
Aishwarya Krishnan, a BCom student of St Xavier’s College who won a gold in 2,000m, a silver in 500m lightweight single scull and a bronze, will soon start preparing for the National Games to be held in Goa in November.
For Mayurakshi Mukherjee, a student of electronics and communication engineering student at the Heritage Institute of Technology under MAKAUT, it has always been motivating to get recognition for the hard work put in.
“We practise hard all year, through rain and shine,” said the winner of a bronze for India in 2015. She won the 2,000m and 500m golds in the single scull heavyweight category in Chandigarh.
source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph,Calcutta,India / Home> Calcutta / by Rita Basu / March 27th, 2018
The Greek community has long vanished from Kolkata. Besides the Greek Orthodox Church at 2A Library Road, the Panioty Fountain (named after Demetrius Panioty) at Curzon Park that is featured in Satyajit Ray’s ‘Paras Pathar’ still stands testimony to Kolkata’s Greek connection. Tucked behind the Metro construction at Phoolbagan rests the only cemetery meant for this community in India.
Locals vouch for its historic relevance and claim that the Greek President had also visited it in 1998. All the above addresses are Grade 1 Heritage Buildings in KMC records.
Yet, today the cemetery lies in neglect. Father Raphael, priest of the Greek Church which also takes care of it, is keen that the either the state government or any private organisation takes up the initiative of renovating this dilapidated cemetery that is a Grade 1 heritage building by KMC records.
In 1777, this cemetery had started functional at 105 Abul Kalam Azad Sarani. Curiously enough, the first tombstone belongs to that a Greek businessman named Alexander! In 1771, Alexander Argeery was sent to Cairo by Warren Hastings on a diplomatic mission to obtain permission for British merchants to trade with Egypt. Once he managed to do that, he was rewarded by Hastings with a permission to build a Greek church in Amratollah Street. Eventually, he shifted his business to Dhaka, where he died on August 5, 1777. Later, his body was buried at this Phoolbagan cemetery on August 7, 1777.
A blue tarpaulin sheet almost hides the entrance. Passers-by can easily overlook the inscription mentioning ‘Greek Cemetery’ beside the gate. Even those staying in the residential apartments, which literally surround the cemetery, wouldn’t think that this can be an attraction for tourists and students of world history.
But in reality, it deserves all their attention and more.
Built on 26 cottah of land, this cemetery is now home to some 300 odd graves. Caretaker Basanta Das, whose grandfather and father also worked here, says this includes even those that don’t have a tombstone.
Unfortunately, most of the tombstones are broken. They are either nameless or have illegible inscriptions. Some have inscriptions written in Greek as well. “Not all the graves have bodies buried underneath. Even when some Greeks died in other India cities and were buried there, their tombstones were erected here. That has been done so that memorial services for all Greeks in India can be collectively held here,” says Raphael.
A small chapel – Prophet Elias – stands inside the cemetery. Few sculptures still remain. Among the first one to draw the attention is the sculpture on the grave of Sir Gregory Charles Paul who was the advocate general of Bengal. Next to this grave rests his widow Lady Aglaia Elizabeth Paul. At the far end of the cemetery rests another grave with inscriptions written in Greek. A striking sculpture of a lady kneeling and holding on to a cross looks arresting.
The once-beautiful garden has now been reduced to just mini bushes. A well has been dug right inside the premises. That’s where Das and his family take a bath and wash utensils. Sometimes when guests come visiting, the graves serve as dining tables for their sumptuous lunches. Ask them if they are scared of spirits on rainy nights and Das and his family break into a peal of laughter. “Never have spirits bothered us here,” Das insists.
The fund crunch in renovating this cemetery is obvious. “The Greek community abroad has been financially supporting our church as well as the upkeep of the cemetery. But in recent times, Greece has been reeling under economic crisis. The community is still trying to help us but currently, we have had to cut down 50% of our projects because of the financial crisis,” says Raphael, adding that any initiative for the upkeep of the cemetery is welcome.
The only Greek representative in Kolkata is 66-year-old old Sister Nectaria Paradesi who is responsible for looking after two orphanages. In the absence of Greek families in Kolkata, the church allows people of other faith who now belong to the Greek Orthodox Community to get buried here. “It is difficult to get burial space in this city. Since this cemetery still has space to accommodate tombs, we allow those who have converted to our congregation to get buried here,” Raphael says.
That’s why one spots the tombstone of Philoythei Tina Khatoon. “The last burial – that of a lady in her 40s – happened some six months ago,” says Das, who gets a meagre salary of Rs 4,500. He is now pinning hopes on the Metro rail authorities to help with the renovation. He had heard that once the Metro Rail station gets built, the authorities might be interested in renovating this place. Das is now hoping these words will not just rumours.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Kolkata News> India / by Priyanka Dasgupta / TNN / March 25th, 2018
Shikanto Mandal, 15, from Mathura, who had developed a unique machine to collect garbage, was invited by the President for dinner on Tuesday. However, it was cancelled at the last moment and the dinner was hosted by science and technology minister Dr Harsh Vardhan at the CSIR centre at Lodhi Gardens in New Delhi.
Mandal, who hails from West Bengal, had showcased his innovative machine at the Festival of Innovation being held in Delhi from March 19 to 23. Earlier speaking with TOI while on his way to New Delhi, Mandal said he had dined with then President Pranab Mukherjee during the Festival of Innovation.
The young inventor said hopes to become a successful engineer one day and fulfil all wishes of his parents and give them every comfort of life. Mandal’s parents are daily wagers. Talking with TOI, Mandal’s teacher Manoj Kumar, who helped him in his project and under whose guidance he built the machine, said he had developed the manual waste lifting and dumping machine when he was in Class IX at Jai Gurudev Balya Balak Vidyadan Higher Secondary School in 2016. He is presently studying in Class XI at KR Inter College, Mathura.
Mandal’s invention, inspired by Swacch Bharat Mission, was chosen for display at the district-level exhibition organized by the department of science and technology in 2016. His machine’s model was then showcased at a state-level exhibition held in Lucknow and later, at the national level.
His model has been patented by a Gujarat-based company, where he holds a 50% stake of the market share.
In January, Mandal was invited by film star Akshay Kumar his movie, “Padman”, screened at the Innovation conclave in which 16 innovators from across the country participated and received Rs 5 lakh each for their innovation.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> News> City News> Agra News / TNN / March 21st, 2018
Prasun Chaudhuri meets the gentle spirit rallying for Chandernagore’s endangered heritage
HERSTORY: Neline Mondal poses where Antony Firingi had once performed Picture Credit: Prasun Chaudhuri
The 24-year-old Belgian scientist arrived in Calcutta one autumn 30 years ago. She was part of a Unesco delegation that was visiting India to raise awareness about the HIV virus in these parts. Like the rest of her colleagues, Neline Colassin was suitably qualified. She had a triple Master’s in Physiology, Cellular Biology and Biochemistry.
In her spare time, she wanted to explore her new habitat. Someone told her about the erstwhile French colony of Chandernagore, 50 kilometres from Calcutta. Neline remembers listening with rapt attention about the small Bengal town and its famed Jagaddhatri Puja. The spectacular fireworks that were part of the celebratory experience and how the tradition possibly owed itself to French administrators who would organise something similar to celebrate the Fall of the Bastille every year.
Neline, who had spent several years at École Normale Supérieure – a school of science in Paris – was fascinated, and one weekend, she decided to see for herself what Chandernagore was all about.
She was referred to a local, a certain Ujjal Mondal, who was involved in another Unesco project – something to do with the restoration of the French institute there. Reminisces Neline, “I did meet that certain Ujjal Mondal and have been meeting him every day ever since.”
In love stories, things have a pace of their own. There is no too soon or too late. Before a year was up, Neline and Ujjal were married.
Neline came to live in the Mondal Mansion, a 277-year-old family house of French colonial-style architecture on the banks of the Ganges, which had definitely seen better days. Says Neline, “Though I had been a scientist, my marriage into the Mondal family turned me into a heritage conservationist.”
As Neline explored the locale, she discovered how French architectural styles had mingled with indigenous ones. “There’s a confluence of French and Bengali styles in architecture, furniture and town-planning. You can see a similar blend of Tamil and French styles in Pondicherry,” she says in mellifluous Bengali with French top notes.
Most houses from that time retain a basic Indian plan – a courtyard in the centre and rooms built around it. The foreign influence is apparent in the facades, intricate stucco detailing – a fine plaster – decorative cast iron grilles, crafted murals and gargoyles. The Mondal Mansion is no exception.
The Mondals, we are told, were essentially traders dealing in salt, swords, wine and foodgrains, among other things. But they seem to have made most of their money from escorting merchant ships in the high seas. “The family had a small private army that fought Portuguese pirates in the Hooghly with expertise. In fact, the pirates were forced to sign a deal that they’d never attack a ship that carried this family’s flag. Thereafter, the Mondals would escort ships of other traders for a fee,” Neline explains.
According to the Mondals, their ancestors ranked among the 20 richest families of India in the late 18th century. The house itself was built in 1741. It took 10 years to complete all 85 rooms. In time, of course, a large part of the house was swallowed by the elements – earthquakes, floods and the changing course of the Hooghly.
Neline, who very graciously takes The Telegraph on a walk-through of the Mondal Mansion, points out the ornate staircase made of Burma teak, the colonnade, the grand Belgian mirror, centuries-old wine bottles and frescoes on the walls. “You’ll find the same frescoes in Napoleon Bonaparte’s house in Paris,” says Ujjal.
The ballroom is said to have hosted performances by Antony Firingi, the poet-singer of Portuguese origin, famed for his devotional songs to Kali. “He was a manager at the salt godown owned by my forefathers,” claims Ujjal. He has been told that Antony was encouraged notwithstanding the disapproval of the locals – they didn’t want a Christian to sing songs in praise of a Hindu deity. Adds Neline, “They [the Mondals] were liberals influenced by the French. Unlike the British, French colonialists were much more open-minded and loved the fusion of the two cultures.”
Despite the crumbling heritage around them, or probably because of it, Neline and Ujjal have become passionate members of The Heritage & People of Chandernagore, a heritage conservation project in association with the Embassy of France in India. Says Neline, “The unique cultural and architectural heritage is being systematically decimated here. Every other week you’ll find a structure demolished. Recently, a century-old printing press was razed.” And then there are all those real estate sharks casting their long shadows. “Several structures have disappeared but we can save the remaining few with a concerted effort,” says Neline.
The Mondal Mansion has managed to survive so far. On a moonlit night, while walking on the expansive terrace, Neline says she feels excited to be the inhabitant of such a grand old place: “The old walls talk to me. They tell me their stories.”
source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph,Calcutta,India / Home> West Bengal / by Prasun Chaudhri / March 25th, 2018
Hundreds of species of plants that used to exist in India 200 years ago and are now believed extinct are not only alive, but well preserved in the UK. A team of senior botanists from Kolkata, which returned last Friday after a four-month tour to the UK, has found that these plants, samples of which had been carefully collected by the British and kept at the Royal Botanic Garden and the Natural History Museum, UK, are well preserved to this day.
The team has also made a startling find related to climate change: a large number of plants in the two herbaria used to naturally grow at lower altitudes 200 years ago, when they had been collected. Plants that used to grow in Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar have now gone up the slopes to Darjeeling and Sikkim, which the scientists ascribe to global warming.
The astonishing discovery to retrace the journey of these plants was undertaken by the botanists from the Indian Botanic Garden, Shibpur. The scientists were allowed access to all 8,00,000 specimens of Indian plants that had been transported out of the country from the time of William Roxburgh, the first superintendent of the Shibpur garden (1794-1812). His successor, Nathiel Wallich, continued the practice and the lion’s share of the specimens was sent out till 1899.
Roxburgh had tried to set up a herbarium inside the garden in Shibpur, but the plants suffered fungus attacks and couldn’t be preserved. So, he started sending them to the Kew Garden (the Royal Botanic Garden) and British Museum (out of which the Natural History Museum was born in 1881). Roxburgh and his successors, however, got artists to draw the likenesses of each species before sending them out, and these have been preserved as reference points at the Shibpur garden to this day.
“While we blame the British for taking away our treasure trove, the Kohinoor being a case in point, we were both emotional and ecstatic when we saw hundreds of these Indian specimens preserved in the Natural History Museum. But for these, there is no other way of physically knowing these plants,” said Basant Singh, one of the senior botanists in the team. He was accompanied by Gopal Krishna and Dilip Roy. The study happened under the guidance of Sandra Knapp, who heads the life sciences department at the museum and its curator, Rani Prakash.
“This is a ground-breaking project and we are grateful to the department of business, energy and industrial strategy of the UK government for facilitating this. For years, we have just spoken about these endangered plants and this time we got a chance to physically examine them,” said P Singh, director of the Botanical Survey of India.
The research team has also digitised the details of 25,000 specimens and brought those back with them, because rules say that no specimen can be taken out of its country of residence. So, despite the fact that these are specimens of native Indian plants, they cannot physically travel back to India. Some examples can be the Panax pseudoginseng, Picror kurroa or Podophyllum hexandrum of the Eastern and Western Himalayas, which have lost a large number of plants forever. The other two zones are the North-East and the Western Ghats.
“That is not all. We have found that over these 200-odd years, several changes have come about in the sizes of the plants, the shapes of their leaves, their flowering and fruiting patterns, the look and colour of the flowers and fruits,” Singh explained. The mammoth data that the team has collected will now be worked on for specific details of extinction and plant behaviour, he added.
The team has also found out that two of the country’s most unwanted weeds — Lantana and Parthenium, which are exotic in nature — got introduced by British botanists by accident. Lantana got introduced as an ornamental plant, whereas Parthenium was mistakenly introduced along with wheat.
On Tuesday, the additional secretary of the ministry of environment and forests, A K Jain, visited the Shibpur garden and took stock of the initial findings of the team, asking members to draw up a detailed report from the wealth of data that they have collected.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City> Kolkata / by Jhimli Mukherjee Pandey / TNN / March 22nd, 2018
