HeritagehomeofBengal renaissance pioneer faces demolition threat

Tensions flared in Bali since Monday after local residents and activists stopped a real estate developer's alleged attempt to demolish the crumbling ancestral home and botanical garden of 19th-century social reformer and writer Akshay Kumar Dutta. Mr Dutta was a leading figure of the Bengal Renaissance.

- RAJIB CHAKRABORTY

Eyewitnesses said workers from a private promoter company brought an earthmover into the heritage property on G T Road in Bali, Hooghly district, and began clearing the ground. The site, locally known as Shovonodyan, houses Dutta's two-story residence and his once-famous collection of rare plants and fossils. Word spread quickly. Hundreds gathered at the property's entrance, demanding the machine be removed and the heritage site protected. Members of several cultural organisations, including the Bangiya Saksharata Prasar Samiti, Vidyasagar Foundation, and Akshay Dutta Foundation, also rallied at the spot, pasting posters and banners to protest the move.