CARE: Assistant Keeper at Mysore's Anthropology Museum Niranjan Khatua providing chemical treatment to an exhibit as part of the conservation and documentation project.

MYSORE: More than a thousand rare artefacts providing a glimpse of the lifestyles of aboriginal and tribal communities of South India are receiving chemical treatment at Anthropology Museum in Mysore as part of an elaborate conservation and documentation project.

During a twenty-day conservation workshop at the museum at Bogadi in Mysore, a team of trained museum curators chose 150 specimens for chemical treatment and documentation, with a view to preserve them.

Though the conservation workshop will conclude on January 3, the exercise to preserve the artefacts will continue until all the exhibits in the museum have been covered. "We chose about 150 artefacts for the workshop which needed special attention as they have a higher heritage value," museum curator Niranjan Khatua told The Hindu.

The museum set up on the premises of Southern Regional Centre of Anthropological Survey of India boasts of a fascinating collection of hunting, fishing and agricultural implements, besides musical instruments, ornaments, baskets, clothes and earthen utensils used by ethnic groups in different parts of South India and the Lakshadweep islands.

The specimens in the museum are associated with ethnic groups such as the Todas, Kotas, Mullus, Kurumbas and Irulars of Tamil Nadu, Soligas, Jenu Kurubas and Panjari Yeravas of Karnataka, Ulladans, Mala Arayans, Kadars and Cholanaikans of Kerala, Sugalis, Bagathas, Kondakapus, Koyas and Chenchus of Andhra Pradesh, and Minicoyans of Lakshadweep, Mr. Khatua said.

"These ethnographic objects are affected by climatic changes and deteriorate easily. They are better preserved when kept in their native climates. But, when these are brought to the museum, they are exposed to a new climatic situation and hence need special care," he said.

A team of curators and assistant keepers from zonal anthropological museums received training in conservation at a recent workshop held at Nagpur, where experts from leading institutions such as National Museum, New Delhi, Conservation Laboratory of State Museum, Chennai, and Allahabad Museum, Allahabad, provided training in conservation of artefacts.

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