The Bose Research Institute. Picture by Suman Tamang

Darjeeling, April 7: From a heritage home to a science park: history has come a full circle for Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose’s Darjeeling property.

The Centre, state government and the board of trustees of Bose Museum have given the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Bose Institute and 13 other research institutes, including the Department of Science and Technology (DST) permission to convert the property into a research centre.

The research conducted will include atmospheric monitoring, solar observation and study of cosmic rays to gather data about the earliest epochs of the cosmos, including telltale signatures of the remnants of the processes going on barely a microsecond after the Big Bang.

“We have decided to set up a research centre where we can conduct studies all round the year,” said Sivaji Raha of the Bose Institute.

“We have also tied up with the North Bengal University Calcutta University and Darjeeling Government College to conduct research at this place. Some of our projects have already been started at Tiger Hill and there are a list of other researches that will soon be flagged off at Sandakphu”, he added.

Jagadish Chandra Bose bought the building that will house the research centre from one Jetmal Bojraj on June 9, 1919.

Letters written by the scientist, during his stay at the Queen of Hills, suggests that he would conduct various experiments and had also identified several medicinal plants in the hills.

Continuing the tradition of research even after Bose’s death on November 23, 1937, his brother Debendra Mohan Bose carried on with his experiments till he retired as the director of Bose institute in1967.

The legacy of research synonymous with the building withered away soon after.

In a bid to preserve the heritage building, the state government, in 2000, converted it into a museum. Instruments used by Bose, typewriters, utensils, clocks and a host of other memorabilia are still housed there. The museum, however, failed to draw in visitors.

Director of Bose Institute M. Siddiqui said scientists had been planning to convert the Bose Museum into a research centre for the last seven years.

“Things have finally fallen into place. Research work will begin from today itself. Apart from being the nodal centre for conducting research in the Eastern Himalayan region, the fact that Jagadish Chandra Bose had himself carried on research to identify the medicinal plants in the region, played a vital role in helping us choose this particular building,” he said.

More than 40 scientists have flown in from all over the country to attend a two-day National Workshop on Astroparticles Physics and Space Science at the centre.

A panel of experts discussed subjects like Theoretical Astrophysics, Cosmology and Atmospheric Chemistry at the workshop,which began here today

Raha said radiometric equipment and environmental paraphernalia, necessary to ensure a glitch-free research environment”, would soon be brought over to the institute.