, Jan. 11 -- Jhenaidah's 21 officially recognised heritage sites across six upazilas, with their rusting gates, crumbling walls, and silent courtyards, now teeter on the brink of ruin, victims of neglect, indifference and the passage of time.

Walking through the grounds of the 19th-century Nilkuthi building at Khalishpur in Maheshpur upazila, it is hard to imagine that this dilapidated structure was once a bustling centre of colonial activity. Its walls, gazette-listed in 2012, are now pockmarked with decay, and weeds creep through the cracked floors.

"After gazette listing, official supervision has effectively stopped. Some structures are even on private land, making preservation even more complicated," says local resident Russell Ahme...