A team of officials from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) office in New Delhi visited the flood-ravaged areas of central Kerala over the past two days to assess the extent of damage or loss inflicted by the recent floods on cultural heritage, including intangible heritage.
Headed by Junhi Han, UNESCO programme specialist for culture, the team is slated to submit its report to the country head on September 30. The report will be cross-verified for duplication and a final report, which is also expected to include recommendations on ways to make heritage sustainable in times to come, will be handed over to the State on October 10.
The UN team, also comprising programme officer Nishant Upadhyay, and assisted by a State delegation comprising Director of Archaeology J. Rejikumar, Director in the Department of Culture T.R. Sadasivan Nair, archaeological conservation engineer S. Bhupesh and archaeological chemist S. Jaikumar, visited the Paliam Palace and Nalukettu on Thursday. “Several artefacts and palm leaf manuscripts at the museum here had suffered considerable damage in the floods,” said Mr. Rejikumar.
Besides the palace, the team also visited Chendamangalam, famous for its GI-tagged handlooms, where the livelihood of the weavers was in a shambles post-flood. At Gothuruth, they visited Chavittunatakam exponents who had lost their costumes and performance gear to the rising waters. Similarly, at the Nepathya Koodiyattom centre at Moozhikkulam, practitioners of the ancient theatre showed them the mizhavu (percussion instruments) that were completely destroyed in the calamity.
On Friday, the team visited the Hill Palace Museum at Thripunithura where trees uprooted in the downpour and winds had caused some damage to the protected property. “At the Narasimha Swamy temple in Chengannur, where water rose up to a metre high, widespread damage was visible. Accompanied by Mohanan Ashari (master craftsman), a master of making palliyodams (Aranmula snakeboats), we visited a vallapura, literally meaning a boathouse, to see a palliyodam that was completely wrecked and beyond repair. We are told as many as 17 palliyodams were damaged in the flood. The loss to implements used in the ritual art of Padayani was also shown to us. The team also got to learn first-hand the damage caused by the flood to the heritage Aranmula metal mirror and in the bell metal town of Mannar,” an official, who was part of the delegation, told The Hindu over the phone.
The UN delegation will be in Thiruvananthapuram for a week to prepare its report.
