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The Botanic Garden See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/259274395 The Botanic Garden Data · December 2013 CITATIONS READS 0 3,031 1 author: Anis Mukhopadhyay University of Calcutta 8 PUBLICATIONS 0 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects: On economic history of Malda District of West Bengal (India) View project All content following this page was uploaded by Anis Mukhopadhyay on 13 December 2013. The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file. The Botanic Garden Dr. Anis Mukhopadhyay Honorary Associate, Centre for Urban Economic Studies, University of Calcutta; Former Associate Professor in Economics, Shibpur Dinobundhoo Institution (College), Howrah – 711 102; and Secretary, South Howrah Citizens’ Forum [email protected] January 2010 1 The Botanic Garden, Shibpur Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanic Garden (formerly known as Indian Botanic Garden and Royal Botanic Garden, Calcutta), spread over 273 acres of land, is situated close to Bengal Engineering and Science University; and both the places are prides of Shibpur, Howrah. Botanical Survey of India (BSI) is in charge of the Garden and BSI is now under the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India. This Botanic Garden is the largest and the oldest of its kind in South-East Asia, catering to the needs of education, research and recreation. The commercial and military importance of botanical investigations could be realized by the East India Company only after it secured a firm grip over Bengal and Madras. In 1778, James Anderson, a surgeon with the Madras Army, obtained a large piece of wasteland near Fort St George, and there he experimented with the cultivation of sugar cane, coffee, American cotton and European apples. In the second half of the eighteenth century, after the East India Company seized political power of Bengal and after the great famine of 1770, the company’s administration were in the look out for new varieties of food plants which can be grown on poorer soil and without much cultivating attention. Lt. Colonel Robert Kyd of the Bengal Army, Military Secretary to the then Governor of Bengal and a man distinguished for his own Research-Garden at Shalimar in the neighbourhood, submitted a scheme of ‘Garden of Acclimatization’ near Calcutta; he suggested to the Government in Calcutta in June 1776 for the establishment of a nursery for growing a number of food plants as well as a number of spice-plants in which the Company traded at that time with Java and adjoining archipelago. It was also suggested that the nursery would grow teak trees which would yield the necessary timber for the repair of Company’s ships. The proposal was approved in July 1787 and Col. Kyd was entrusted with the task of finding a suitable land on the western bank of the river. In addition to such a proposal, Colonel Kyd was really interested in encouragement of the study of Botany within a regular system sponsored by the company. The Royal Botanic Garden, Kew (at a small distance from London) is younger to the Royal Botanic Garden, Shibpur (at a small distance from Calcutta) by about fifty years; but the two gardens have 2 different origins. Later, both the gardens became a source of scientific information, research and recreation; but the Kew Garden has been developed as the largest botanic garden with the largest herbarium in the world. After selection of the site, the government granted the land for the Botanic Garden, a deep trench around the land was dug and a fence was erected. Col. Kyd as the honorary Superintendent of this Botanic Garden took primary initiative to lay the garden and plant different species collected from various parts of the globe, many of which did not survive in the local climate and soil. Col. Kyd lived in his own garden house at Shalimar, worked for the Botanic Garden for about six years and died in 1793 (May 26). Col. Kyd was so attached to the Botanic Garden and his Shalimar garden that in his dying directives (last Will May 18, 1793) he mentioned about the upkeep of the Botanic Garden, care of his permanent attendants and also “last remains be committed to the ground, in my own garden … near an Alligator tree … and that my funeral expenses do not exceed rupees three hundred”. In disregard to his ‘Will’ he was buried in the Park Street Cemetery at a cost of over eight hundred rupees. However, in his memory, a beautiful marble urn was erected in the Botanic Garden on a site selected by William Roxburgh, his successor. During those days, it was known as Company Bagan (Garden of the East India Company). In 1796, the Directors of the East India Company sent several mahogany plants for the Garden. The teak and mahogany plants were first deposited in the Governor-General’s garden in Alipore till their implant in the Garden was sanctioned. Col. Kyd was succeeded by Dr. William Roxburgh (of Ayrshire in North Britain) in 1793, the first salaried Superintendent of the Garden who took charge on an invitation from the Bengal Government. He was a Botanist who made immense contribution to the study of Indian Botany and is regarded by many as the father of Indian Botany. He was also interested in meteorological impact on droughts and famine, and therefore, recommended food tree plantation like coconut, date, jackfruit etc in the countryside and in public land, which would furnish sustenance to the poor in times of scarcity. Earlier, at Samalcotta near Madras, he had experimented with pepper and indigo. The Court 3 approved of such efforts but appreciated more that part of his activity which had a commercial bearing, and for this chose him for Calcutta. Under the leadership of the enthusiastic Botanist Dr. Roxburgh and with the assistance from his fellow scientists in India and in Europe, the original commercial objective of the Garden was gradually pushed to the background and the Royal Botanic Garden was planned and landscaped entirely for scientific studies. He added to the Calcutta botanic garden largest ever species of plants and trees; his work on economic botany also earned him gold medals from the Society of Arts. The Garden in his time flourished both as a scene of useful botanical experiments and as a pleasant lounge for visitors to enjoy a holiday. Residential quarter for the Superintendent Dr. Roxburgh was constructed within the garden in 1795 and he retired from service in 1813 to go back to his native Scotland where he died in 1815. The most notable find of Roxburgh was Nathaniel Wallich, a surgeon attached to the Danish settlement at Serampore, who was taken a prisoner of war in early 1809 when several French, Dutch and Danish settlements in and around India were attacked by the British at the time of Napoleonic wars. Wallich had been earning handsome amount in private practice; but he agreed to serve as a botanist on ‘whatever allowance’ the government would grant and declared that his object was to gain knowledge and not to make money. But, when the question of finding a successor to Roxburgh arose, Wallich did not find a favour from the administration; finally, he got charge of the Shibpur botanic garden on a later date through interference and lobbying by William Carey. Wallich soon earned reputation of being an avid plant collector for the purpose of which he widely surveyed Bengal, Bihar, Nepal, Penang, Singapur, Burma and China. He also distributed the specimens as widely as possible among science institutions. Still the Calcutta Botanic Garden, the biggest in the country, remained only a mixed collection of several thousand species; and T. Thompson, the Superintendent reported in 1856 that the scientific character of the garden suffered, because the library, the herbarium and the museum starved from want of fund. But botanical investigations did not stop mainly due to the dedication of botanists and the relationship between science and working of colonial commercial and military objectives dubbed by some social historians as ‘colonial science’ which is, in fact, a paradigm of scientific development in a colonial situation. 4 After Dr. Roxburgh, for four years, the Garden was in charge of Dr. Francis Buchanan who became well known later as Sir Francis Buchanan Hamilton, the naturalist and field survey worker and also as the compiler of the first series of Bengal District Gazetteers. Wallich entered the garden administration and research after Dr. Francis Buchanan. Dr. Nathaniel Wallich not only played a great role in the Shibpur Botanic Garden by his enormous collections, cataloguing and extension of research work, but he was also one of the founders of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. Originally, the Garden was on 300 acres; in 1819 about 31 acres was detached from it to the Lord Bishop of Calcutta for founding Bishop’s College; and another portion of the garden land was detached in 1864 for construction of a road to Howrah along the north of Bishop’s College. A plot of land, about 2 acres, in the Garden was given conditionally to Agricultural and Horticultural Society for a nursery garden; the area under the Society expanded in size up to 1835, but was also ultimately resumed in 1872 when it was transferred to Society’s own Garden in Alipore. This Society was founded in September 1820 by the eminent Baptist Missionary Dr. William Carey; and it had an office, meeting room, library and museum in the Metcalfe Hall, Calcutta. William Carey was the Society’s first President; and Dwarakanath Tagore and Dr. Nathaniel Wallich were also involved in the Agricultural and Horticultural Society.
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