Kerala   

Creating awareness of cultural heritage

The Centre for Heritage Studies (CHS) under the Department of Culture will give special focus on creating heritage awareness in the northern regions of the State endowed with many heritage sites and structures.

CHS Director General and former Calicut University Vice-Chancellor K.K.N. Kurup told The Hindu on Monday that CHS had already chalked out various programmes for awareness creation in the northern region where structures, especially those constructed during the colonial period, remained unprotected. The projects in the pipeline include camps for students, classes to sensitise local bodies and people's representatives about the importance of protecting heritage sites and structures, he said.

"Though heritage awareness is higher in the southern parts of the State and there are many heritage buildings being protected as monuments, there should be increased efforts to make the public and the local bodies in the region more sensitive," Dr. Kurup said.

Major initiatives of the CHS in the Malabar region include development of a Zamorin museum in Kozhikode, Keyi museum at Thalassery and a heritage village at Kodakkad near Hosdurg in Kasaragod, Dr. Kurup said adding that the CHS would also provide technical help to maintain heritage museums.

He also said that classes for local body members were already conducted in Kasaragod and Kannur districts and would be held in Kozhikode soon. The camps for students would begin with a session at the KMM Government Women's College here in April.

Dr. Kurup said the Malabar region lost many heritage structures due to a lack of awareness. Recalling the demolition in the 1970s of the old Collectorate in Kozhikode built in 1812, he said the region still had heritage structures such as Baber Bungalow and the Sub-Collector's Bungalow at Thalassery, taluk offices at Kannur, Kasaragod and Hosdurg, to name a few.

The CHS would take up with the Government the bringing in of a legislation for the protection of local heritage sites and structures, he said.

Mohamed Nazeer

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