Belagavi: Here, tobacco is for preserving documents, not lighting up

Senior sub-registrar Girishchandra, said the office has documents even from the year 1867. 
The old wooden shelf with tobacco and naphthalene balls | Express
The old wooden shelf with tobacco and naphthalene balls | Express

BELAGAVI: The sub-registrar’s office in Belagavi is a ‘no tobacco zone’. But surprisingly, it is tobacco, along with naphthalene balls, which is being used to preserve documents here, some of which are more than a century old. 

When the staff at the sub-registrar office started work on photocopying documents for easy preservation, they found that some of the documents which are more than 100 years old, were still safe from termites in their record room. And this is thanks to an age-old method of preservation using tobacco and naphthalene balls.

The staff members said the office building was constructed during the British rule. The shelves were placed on heavy anti-rust metal bases. The metal base has a groove in which water was filled. This prevents ants, termites and cockroaches from getting on to the shelves.

The tobacco and the naphthalene balls kept on the shelves also drive them away, they said. KK Maruche, translator of Modi script (old Marathi language script) at the Sub-Registrar office, said there are old records written in Modi script and old Kannada script.

Senior sub-registrar Girishchandra, said the office has documents even from the year 1867. 

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