A colonia-era log house, a historical monument of the Forest Department, at Valiamala near Pakkom in Wayanad, collapsed in rain on Monday night.
The log house, now under the Chethalayath forest range in the South Wayanad forest division, was built by the British rulers in 1886. It had been in a dilapidated state for the past three decades due to lack of maintenance.
Though the Forest Department launched a ₹3-crore project to renovate the log house in 2013, the Kerala Forest Development Corporation that was tasked with the construction work withdrew from the project terming it unviable.
However, the department had renovated the log house at Muthanga a few years ago and it was opened for tourists.
“Five such log houses were built in the forests at Begur, Tholpetty, Pakkom, and Muthanga in the district, and at Play Hut, a remote place on the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border. The log house at Valiyamala, near Pakkom, the biggest among them, was the camp centre of the British forest officials during their visits to Wayanad,” T. Sasikumar, forest range officer, Chethalayath range, said.
The log houses were two-storey structures built on wooden pillars to ward off wild animals. The second floor of the structure was used for official purposes. They were used as the temporary office of the department to disburse salaries and incentives to officials in Wayanad, he said.
Forest Department sources said they would conserve the relics of the log house. The department had chalked out a project to reconstruct the log house as part of the Kuruva tourism circle, the sources said.
