IDUKKI: When seen on the map of Kerala, Upputhara is just another dot, but this sleepy town, located on the banks of the Periyar between the then Kakkathodu reserve forest and the tea plantations of Cheenthalar in Peerumade, has a major place in Kerala’s social and economic history. For, it was this sleepy town of today that was the venue of one of the earliest human migrations within modern Kerala. That was a hundred years ago and Upputhara is gearing up to celebrate the centenary of that momentous event next year.
They were five families led, according to a souvenir published by the local parish, by Devasia Puthiyathu, Kurien Mecheril, Ouseph Kanakkalil, Ouseph Kuruvanplackel and Ouseph Kaithackal, hailing from Thidanadu, then under the Poonjar royalty. According to Dr. Sabu John Panachickal, chairman, High Range Settlement Centenary Celebration Committee, the five families settled down at Upputhara and go further east to the plantations established decades earlier by the British as blocking their path was the mighty Periyar.
Upputhara is said to have got its name from the salty taste of the water in its marshy stretches where animals used to throng. What began as a trickle in the late 1910s soon became a wave and, by 1926, Upputhara already had a ‘kudippallikkudam’ (a pre-school). Soon, the first church in the high ranges was established here. The school, a joint initiative of people belonging to different communities, came to be known later as the Onamkulam Memorial Lower Primary School, after Fr. Onamkulam, the first Catholic priest to reach Upputhara, who played a key role in raising the pre-school to the status of a lower primary school.
From those days of adverse climatic conditions and the ever-present threat of animal attacks and diseases, Upputhara has come a long way today. With the local revenue officials taking a helpful stand and official support to migration to produce more food on the rise, Upputhara soon became one of the key centres of trade in the high ranges. Once people began to migrate to Upputhara in large numbers, the question of securing land ownership arose. The first person to secure title deed in the area, through a royal proclamation in 1932 was Paaraavil Frenchu, on whose land the first church was established.
The migration to Upputhara and beyond happened in three phases. The first was the arrival of the five families from Thidanadu to Upputhara. This was followed by large scale migration of people mainly from Ramapuram, Pala and Meenachil areas and then the exodus of people there leading to migration to nearby areas like Ayyappancoil, Kanchiiyar, Kattappana and Erattayar. There were many families who had returned to native villages on finding it difficult to face the adverse climatic conditions and the spread of epidemics such as malaria. Records show that the epidemic had wiped out whole families. The migrants from Travancore were, in a way, late entrants, for the nearby areas of Ayyappancoil and Kozhimala are strewn with evidences such as hero stones, burial urns and dolmen, pointing to migrations in earlier centuries.
Although the earliest settlement, Upputhara subsequently yielded its prominence to Kattappana, thanks to the development of the Kottayam-Kattappana State Highway. A bridge connecting the State highway with Upputhara was constructed only in 1980 and, being away from the main road, its growth potential staggered. However, with the development of the Kochi-Kumily State Highway, Upputhara is once again poised to gain prominence. The centenary celebrations committee is planning to install a relief work representing the early settlers and the farming culture at Upputhara town as a mark of respect to the early settlers. “The work will reflect the adversities that early settlers faced and how their success in turning this place into a habitable area,” said centenary celebrations committee convener Sabin Scaria.
(EOM)
