Kolkata :
RIP Thomas Nelson Annandale, at the Scottish Cemetery.
Not many people know that the first director-general of Zoological Survey of India (ZSI), Thomas Nelson Annandale was buried at the Scottish Cemetery when he breathed his last on April, 1924. Or who he actually was. When ZSI kick-starts its centenary celebrations on Wednesday (the organization was founded on 1 July 2016), a plaque will be erected to pay homage to its Scottish founder at recently-discovered tomb.
Tracing the grave was far from easy for the premier institution on animal taxonomy that is adept at identifying species around the country. According to some records at ZSI, Annandale was buried inside the South Park Street cemetery. It took ZSI a while to fish out documents to prove that his remains had been shifted to the Scottish Cemetery where he has since been left to rest.
ZSI director Krishnamoorthy Venkataraman told TOI on Monday: “Now that we have found the grave, a plaque will be erected to honour Annandale’s contribution to ZSI and science at large.” Dhriti Banerjee, deputy director and head of office, ZSI, said, “It took us some time to find out that the ZSI founder was buried at the Scottish Cemetery and not at the Park Street Cemetery. But when we initiated the mission, we realized that the inscriptions were barely visible. We had a difficult time finding out Annandale’s tombstone.”
Most of the tombstones at the cemetery lie broken, defaced and forgotten. Weeds have obscured the gorgeous carvings. Annandale’s tombstone was unclean and the lead filling on the inscription had corroded. Established in 1820, the six-acre Scottish Cemetery was in use till 1940. Currently, it has around 4,300 graves. Apart from Scots, a few Bengalis who were converted to Christianity by Scottish priests were buried there.
After discovering the grave, ZSI officials had the tombstone spruced up and the inscription re-painted. On the occasion of ZSI’s centenary, new slabs will be installed on the grave and landscaping done around it.
An array of programmes have been planned to mark ZSI centenary. The authorities are organizing a run on July 1 to kick-start its centenary celebrations. The Centenary Run will begin from the Asiatic Society in Park Street, the place of ZSI’s origin, and end at Prani Vigyan Bhawan, the present headquarters in New Alipore.
Venkataraman said Prime Minister Narendra Modi will participate in the centenary celebrations in the third week of July at the ZSI headquarters and dedicate the “Digital ZSI” – the e-access to ZSI’s documents – to the country on 100 years of faunal inventory of India.
Going back to the organisation’s first founder, the director said: “We have learnt from a publication published by ZSI that the first director-general travelled across the country and also to China, Japan, Malaya and Morocco looking for different species of fauna in the beginning of 20th century.” The publication had described Annandale as a person of “slight physique, with high strung temperament and restless energy.” He was born in Edinburgh in June 1876 and died in Kolkata on April 10, 1924. During his short life of 48 years, Annandale had 528 scientific reports published.
Venkataraman said conducting authentic research on the country’s rich faunal diversity, undertaking studies on alien fauna, collecting samples of the country’s zoological wealth and setting up zoological museums in different parts of the country are some of the objectives of ZSI.
Annandale had founded the ZSI, which later started functioned under the ministry of environment, forests and climate change, to promote survey, exploration, research and documentation on animal taxonomy. It has identified more than 96,000 species of animals.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Kolkata / TNN / by Ajanta Chakraborty / June 30th, 2015