A fire destroyed a major portion of the famous Makaibari tea garden’s bungalow in Kurseong in Darjeeling district, West Bengal, on Thursday. Officials told The Telegraph that the building was home to valuable documents and artefacts related to the estate’s history. Fire officials said they suspected a short circuit to have sparked the fire, IANS reported.
“We were so proud of the bungalow which was filled with mementos received from around 87 countries,” an unidentified official told the English daily. “There were rare collections of books and artefacts that reflected the estate’s history. Stuffed skins of tigers and leopard were hanging from the walls of the building. The bungalow had other wildlife trophies also. The entire history is lost now.”
The chairperson of the Makaibari Tea and Trade Company, Swaraj Kumar Banerjee, was not on the premises when the incident took place. “The chairman’s wife was in the bungalow, along with a nurse and two maids,” the same official said. “But they were all rescued from the semi-wooden structure.”
The tea garden, believed to be more than a 100-years-old, is renowned for its production of an exotic variety of Darjeeling tea. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had gifted the Makaibari’s Silver Tips Imperial brand to Queen Elizabeth during his visit to England in 2015. In 2014, the tea brand was sold for Rs 1.12 lakh a kg, while its retail price is Rs 20,000 per kg on an average.
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