THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: As a large number of records, many of them valuable and rare, are feared damaged in the floods, the State Archives Department is lending a helping hand to the public and government offices in their restoration. Conservation experts of the State Archives Department have begun touring flood-hit districts to help the public and government offices like sub-registrar offices restore valuable documents and archival material including palm-leaf manuscripts damaged in the disaster.
Ports, Archaeology and Archives Minister Kadannappally Ramachandran on Friday flagged off two ‘Mobile document conservation clinics’ teams led by a conservation officer each and consisting of technical experts. “The floods have damaged a lot of valuable materials. For example, a library in Kodungallur has recovered around 10,000 books damaged by the water. We plan to select valuable ones and restore them.
Furthermore, government facilities such as sub-registrar offices and panchayat offices have reported large-scale damage to documents. We have also begun compiling a list through district collectors,” Archives director P Biju said. The department also fears that in the aftermath of the disaster, people may not think twice about destroying damaged material such as palm-leaf manuscripts which were kept as novelties. On Monday, the department also plans to deploy a 15-member team to help sub-registrar offices in the flood-affected regions restore their offices and record rooms.
Documents like SSLC books, passports and college certificates do not, however, fall within the purview of the department’s restoration project as restoration itself is a tedious process and it would be easier and better to get these types of certificates replaced, Biju said.
“We are looking at rare documents or manuscripts. Only a few people might take the trouble to restore them. The project is also intended to create awareness about the need to preserve such material,” he said.
The department also operates a community archives project to help protect documents and manuscripts in private hands and also to preserve them digitally.
Archaeology Dept to inspect protected monuments in flood-hit regions
T’Puram:With a large number of buildings in the flood-hit regions either destroyed or seriously damaged, the Archaeology Department has launched an urgent inspection of protected monuments in these regions. The department has assigned its engineering wing to conduct structural inspections of all 179 protected monuments under it, Archaeology director J Rejikumar said. As of now, no major damage has been reported. The Edakkal caves in Wayanad have reported damage.
Work there is expected to start on Monday after consulting experts, a department official said. All monuments, including Padmanabhapuram Palace in Thuckalai, Tamil Nadu, will be subjected to an inspection to make sure that the torrential rainfall has not caused any serious damage to the structures. Once the inspection reports are submitted, steps would be taken to protect these structures, if needed, Rejikumar said. The department has also offered to provide technical expertise for restoring objects of heritage value in private hands damaged in the floods.