Kolkata: Heritage & conservation tips for kids at South Park Street Cemetery

KOLKATA: The Christian Burial Board (CBB), the official custodian of the South Park Street Cemetery, organised an interaction with students of a school that is just across the street on Saturday to sensitize young minds about heritage and conservation.
The cemetery is considered the world’s ninth most beautiful cemetery and a national treasure.

Set up in 1767, the South Park Street Cemetery that was restored from ruins with support from UK-based British Association for Cemeteries in South Asia in 1981, has 1,600 vaults with tombs on top exhibiting architecture styles that encompass several civilizations spanning 3,500 years.One can find sarcophaguses, ionic and fluted columns, urns, Gothic architecture, mausoleums, Islamic domes and even Hindu temples inside the cemetery.
“There is perhaps no other public colonial cemetery (not controlled by any church) of this variety and dimension anywhere else in the world,” CBB honorary executive member Ranajoy Bose told students of Assembly of God Church School, which had been built where the North Park Street Cemetery stood. Students of several other schools will be invited to experience the cemetery over the next week.
After a guided tour of the cemetery by former director (science) of Archaeological Survey of India, Surajit Maiti, former ASI deputy superintending archaeological engineer Tapan Bhattacharya explained the challenges in maintaining the tombs and demonstrated how they are restored.
“Growth of wild vegetation and large trees adjacent to the tombs cause damp and penetration of roots into the core of the structures. The resultant cracks at various levels of the structure lead to dislocation of their original alignments. Long exposure to rain and water causes salinization of the bricks. Unscientific repairs carried out earlier with materials that are not compatible also caused damage to the tombs,” Bhattacharya pointed out.
To restore the tombs, one has to remove dead mortars and cement coatings from the surface, provide plinth protection with brick work, and undertake water-tightening measures with soluble solvents. Cracks and voids need to be repaired with grouting using lime-mortar.
“Underpinning brick work to the damaged walls is important as is filleting of bulged-out portions to their original alignment,” he said.
The students of classes IX to XII also learnt about structural and curative restoration. While the former is about the use of compatible material and grouting, the latter involves use of chemicals to clean the surface, desalinate, offer protection from damp and fungus and application of preservatives.
Atrija Gupta of Class IX and Sayan Das of Class X who had been to the cemetery before, learned a lot more about its history and heritage. Class XII student Rooprekha Banerjee who had stepped into South Park Street Cemetery for the first time found the experience fascinating. “I now realise why it is important to maintain and preserve places like these that add so much to our city’s character and history,” she remarked.