ONCE home to the Scots "father of Indian Botany" William Roxburgh, as well as thousands of specimens, the18th century villa and herbarium have for decades been slowly reclaimed by the flora they celebrated.
Now the striking colonial structures in the Calcutta Botanic Gardens are to be brought back to life under a plan involving a leading Scots architect, Roxburgh's alma mater Edinburgh University and the University of Javadpur.
Completed in 1795 but abandoned since the seventies, its impressive portico, verandas and Burma teak spiral staircase have been engulfed by time.
Profile: Scots father of Indian botany William Roxburgh
However, the plan to restore the complex that sits near a famous Banyan tree that was there in Roxburgh's time will involve students from Edinburgh and Javadpur could pave the way for a new era of conservation of chosen colonial buildings in India.
The Botanical Survey of India, the garden's owner, is poised for news of initial funding from the Indian Government for the project, which is not yet not fully costed but is thought could run into hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Dr James Simpson, the conservation architect who was also behind the rebuilding of the Botanics Cottage in Edinburgh where Roxburgh studied when the garden was in Leith, said: "We have been discussing the possibility with the BSI of restoring William Roxburgh's house in the garden for use as an interdisciplinary climate and environmental history research centre or an interpretation centre for the Botanic Garden.
Profile: Scots father of Indian botany William Roxburgh
"The network would like to solicit both public and government support from India and Britain for this important initiative in cross-cultural collaboration."
The Calcutta Botanic Garden was first set up in the 1780s by Lieutenant Colonel Robert Kyd, a military Scot from near Forfar, at his estate of Sibpur across the Hooghly River from thhe city - now Kolkata - and it was taken over by the British East India Company before Ayrshire-born Roxburgh became its first superintendent in 1793.
He switched the emphasis from "practical" botany such as tea cultivation - the British East India Company also had a monopoly on opium cultivation in Bengal - and spice competition to more academic and research-based studies, and it became one of the great botanic gardens of the world.
Profile: Scots father of Indian botany William Roxburgh
The herbarium that the Scottish surgeon-cum-botanist had built for his collection of more than 2,500 plant specimens along with detailed coloured drawings is described as an architectural marvel, and was built on an elevated structure with arched foundations to let the waters of the Hooghly flow through during high tide.
The architect and academic are pursuing the project under the auspices of the Asia Scotland Trust with help from the Centre of World Environmental History at Sussex University.
Dr Dorian Wiszniewski, of Edinburgh University and architect Mr Simpson, both trustees of the culture and knowledge-sharing trust, held talks in Calcutta about the conservation link.
Profile: Scots father of Indian botany William Roxburgh
Mr Wisniewszki said: "We were out their in January and we met with with various people including the University of Javadpur, who want to open a degree in conservation and they would like the University of Edinburgh’s help in doing so.
“What we are doing is to get James with Jadavpur quite practically to set up some sort of training guilds training in the practical use of, for example, lime render.
“Between us we are trying to a few things happening in Calcutta which is a mix of expertise in conservation, regeneration, setting up networks and connections with the various institutions there with the University of Jadavpur.
"The Roxburgh buildings at the botanics is something we have identified that could potentially benefit from our collective skills."
Profile: Scots father of Indian botany William Roxburgh
He continued: "There’s a direct connection with the Calcutta Botanics and Edinburgh and Glasgow, but also Hong Kong.
"The gardens that were developed in Hong Kong were a direct bi-product of the Calcutta Botanics.
"As you can imagine there would have been a lot of opium moved between Calcutta and Canton and then eventually Hong Kong.
"The first settlement in Hong Kong was actually an extension of the botanic gardens.
"It is important to understand that it is not entirely innocent and benign but at the same time the whole Bengal renaissance is based on those early Orientalists like Roxburgh.
Profile: Scots father of Indian botany William Roxburgh
"So he is quite an important figure, and it is because everything else is going on with regard to the economy of the East India Company and subsequently the Raj that this is a genuine interest in what the tropics, what these other parts of the world have, and it is place to record all the wonders and the marvels, and people like Roxburgh couldn’t help themselves but get caught up in it."
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