Century-old Bihar college astronomical lab on Unesco list

PATNA: The 106-year-old astronomical observatory of Langat Singh College, Muzaffarpur, under Bhim Rao Ambedkar Bihar University (BRABU) has been included on the Unesco list of important endangered heritage observatories of the world.
National Commission for History of Science member and Delhi University’s former modern history professor J N Sinha said his constant efforts for attracting Unesco's attention finally bore fruit following the inclusion of this once vibrant observatory on the heritage list.
Sinha added the observatory, first of its kind in eastern India, was established in this 123-year old college in 1916 to appraise the students with the astronomical knowledge in detail. “Later, a planetarium, probably the first in India, was also set up in the college in 1946. Both the observatory as well as the planetarium functioned satisfactorily up to early 1970s, but started declining gradually with the passage of time. At present, it is lying completely dysfunctional and most of the costly machines installed in the observatory have either been lost or become junk,” he said.
As per the information displayed on Unesco ’s web portal, the initiative for the establishment of this observatory was taken by Romesh Chandra Sen of the college who, with the help of astronomer and director of Wesleyan College, Bankura (West Bengal) J Mitchell, procured astronomical instruments and set up this observatory. The college acquired a sophisticated telescope along with other accessories from England.
The observatory interacted with the Astronomical Observatory of the Presidency College in Calcutta on issues such as difficulties in conducting observations, problems of “double stars”, “sunspots”, and the lack of astronomical literature.
R L Verma, one of the senior professors in the post-Independence period, showed great interest in promoting the observatory. He was succeeded by Sati Raman Prasad, who headed it, until he retired in the 1980s. After this time, nobody seems to have interest in the observatory and some equipment from the observatory was reportedly stolen around 1995.
College principal Om Prakash Roy said the institution had been trying to draw the attention of the authorities concerned towards the dilapidated condition of this observatory, but nothing positive has emerged so far.
“Several representations had been submitted to the education and science and technology departments in the past for its renovation without any fruitful result. Even chief minister Nitish Kumar had visited this observatory during his visit to the institution in course of Champaran Satyagrah centenary celebrations and had assured sanctioning necessary grants for its revival,” he said.
The principal, however, hoped that the inclusion of this observatory on Unesco list would attract the government departments soon.