Tourist in Pusa

The history of Pusa is age-old, which has the roots in the Darbhanga Raj of Tirhut Estate wherein 18th century after the victories of the British East India Company in the Battle of Plassey (1757) and the Battle of Buxar (1764) followed by the Treaty of Allahabad (1765), the imperial government acquired the U-shaped land of Pusa near the right bank of the Burhi Gandak River in 1796. Later on East India Company established a stud farm at Poosah (Pusa), led by Lieutenant Major Frazer (Superintendent, 1793-1808) to breed cavalry horses. This endeavour continued until 1874 but was closed due to an epidemic of gland disease. The Bengal government owned a sprawling estate at Pusa, where it had earlier run a model farm from 1875 to 1876. It was subsequently leased out to the British tobacco firms for experiments on tobacco culture from 1877 to 1897 to meet the requirements of UK cigarette factories.

Pusa is a place of pilgrimage for agricultural researchers and academicians in India because it is the place where organized agricultural research and education began in pre-independence India on April 1,1905, when it was established as the “Imperial Agricultural Research Institute (IARI)”. Initially, the “Phipps Laboratory” was constructed after generous donation of £30,000 in 1903 to the Agricultural Research Institute (ARI) by the Mr. Henry Phipps, an American philanthropist. Further, a grant of £110,000 by the colonial government resulted in the development of different infrastructural facilities, including the “Navlakha Building”. In 1911, the name of ARI was changed to the “Imperial Institute of Agricultural Research,” and in 1919, it was renamed “Imperial Agricultural Research Institute (IARI).” However, a devastating earthquake in January 15, 1934, led to the institute’s relocation to Delhi on July 29, 1936, and it acquired its current name, “Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI),” after the independence of India in 1947. Since then, this institute has been continuously in the service of India and has made many significant achievements in agriculture, making India a food surplus and nutritionally secure country.

Hence, IARI, Pusa, Samastipur (Bihar) is the birth place of Agricultural Research and Education in India wherein 1923, the first post graduate programme in agricultural education was started and today it’s a centenary year of that wonderful prestigious initiation. Since, 1794 Pusa has been epicenter of agricultural and animal husbandry related economic activities in one form or other that can be traced back in many historical documents of that period. Therefore, it can be safely concluded that name of Pusa is not based on the name of Philanthropist Mr. Phipps from United State of America (USA) which is otherwise general perception and belief but it is not true. In fact, historically Pusa was existing long before the generous contribution made by the Henry Phipps of USA and can be found into the