Several Kolkatans, some of who live in the city and some are settled elsewhere but have their heartstrings knitted here, have written to the chief minister with a plea to declare certain areas heritage zones or precincts to ensure extra protection for those places and prevent their gradual fading away.
The signatories have requested Mamata Banerjee that BBD Bag and College Square in central Kolkata and Hindustan Park/Lake Temple Road/Dover Lane in the south be declared heritage precincts immediately. They have also requested the chief minister to identify and declare biodiversity zones that still survive within the city.
A heritage precinct is different from a heritage structure, which can be an individual building. A heritage zone or precinct is a neighbourhood that has multiple buildings with architectural significance or historical importance.
The buildings may not be on the list of heritage structures but together they lend a character to the place. Their demolition and replacement by modern buildings would change the character of the place and, by extension, the city.
Biodiversity zones are not just parks, but green spaces, clusters of trees and even gardens around houses that host many birds, insects, plants and animal life, “whose survival is absolutely essential for the long term in the age of global warming”.
The signatories to the letter, sent to the chief minister on Wednesday, include authors Amitav Ghosh and Amit Chaudhuri; academics Sukanta Chaudhuri, Supriya Chaudhuri and Partha Mitter; historian Dipesh Chakrabarty; filmmaker Aparna Sen; academic Tapati Guha Thakurta; activists Bonani Kakkar and Pradeep Kakkar.
Sukanta Chaudhuri, professor emeritus at Jadavpur University, said he felt it was especially important to link the environmental aspect to the issue. “We have to also think about the living environment, the entire ambience of a place,” he said.
He gave the example of College Street as a heritage precinct. “If you think about College Street as a heritage zone, you cannot only think about the buildings of Calcutta University and Presidency College. College Street is made of many other things. The entire place’s ambience has to be protected,” he said.
The letter laments the fact that there are still no heritage precincts in Kolkata.
“The fact that Kolkata, which claims to be the nerve-centre of the history of Indian modernity, still has no heritage precincts while Mumbai, Delhi, Puducherry, Ahmedabad, and other cities do is a matter of perplexity,” the letter reads.
“The precincts in these cities have been the focus of worldwide attention; the absence of precincts in ours must be of concern to you, given the pride you take in Bengal’s secular modernity.”
College Square, which are two of the places that some Kolkatans want to be declared as heritage zones.
The letter also dwells on the rise in heat levels in Kolkata and why “climate-congenial” old houses that are being pulled down regularly could be a good counter.
“The space, the design of their walls, the large windows make these houses cooler than what we are building now. One can do with lesser air-conditioning in these.ACs themselves heat up the environment,” Amit Chaudhuri, author and the prime force behind the letter, told The Telegraph.
He explained that if certain spaces were declared as biodiversity zones, it would prevent destruction of the greenery there.
“There are many private houses with gardens that are rich in biodiversity. Even if a builder pulls down the structure, he will be barred from destroying the garden if it is declared as a biodiversity zone,” Amit Chaudhuri said.
Many of the signatories to the letter had also signed a letter sent to Mamata in 2015 on Calcutta’s architectural heritage “asking for urgent reforms in, and addition to, heritage laws, and for heritage precincts that would protect the city’s historic neighbourhoods from demolition to be declared”.
“Although there’s greater consciousness of what’s at stake in this matter than there ever has been before in Bengal, this is not reflected by government policy or by the workings of the municipal corporation,” Wednesday’s letter says.
Amit Chaudhuri said the letter had been emailed to the chief minister and a hardcopy sent to her office at Nabanna.