Assam tea garden heritage documented by INTACH

KOLKATA: The tea story of Assam began way back in 1830s by the side of river Sadiya. In order to depict the rich built heritage of the Assam tea gardens, The Indian National Trust For Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) has documented it in a book "Burra Bungalows & All That".
"Unless we have a document and a list of what we have, how will someone know what we have? That is what we have precisely tried to do in this book," GM Kapur, convenor, West Bengal and Kolkata Regional Chapter Governing Council member, INTACH told TOI.So far, there was no such documentation of the Assam tea gardens' heritage.
INTACH, is a national non-government organisation dedicated to heritage conservation.
Initially, INTACH approached Tea Board of India to allow it to take up this listing project. After receiving Tea Board's approval, with the help of Indian Tea association (ITA) an expert committee was formed, which had members from tea planters, INTACH and ITA. "We all sat together and drew up a list of 450 gardens in Assam, from which 150 gardens were shortlisted for the book," he said.
It took them three-long years to come up with this book. The book was written by Prosenjit Das Gupta, INTACH member and the photographs were chosen by Monojit Dasgupta, secretary general, ITA and Kapur himself. Funding was done by INTACH and Tea Board both.
"This is a unique documentation that will help promote heritage tourism in those areas," Nayantara Palchoudhuri, co-convenor, West Bengal chapter, INTACH.
Cutting across the spectrum, the book encompassed every aspect of lifestyle of several people whose lives revolved around the tea estate and business. It mentioned about the plight of the tea workers during that period their sufferings from heat stroke, malaria, kalazar or cholera.
Keeping aside the gory tale of human sufferings, the book unveils loads of picturesque bunglows. It has segregated the tea gardens in Assam into four sections Dibrugarh and Upper Assam, Jorhat and Sibsagar. Silchar area and Tezpur and north bank.
For some of the areas even maps have been provided to help promote tourism in and around this part of the country.