Serambis, the tile-roofed wooden forest rest houses built by the British, are a major attraction in Wayanad. On April 6, the biggest and oldest serambi in Wayanad, located in Pakkam, collapsed due to lack of proper maintenance.
Serambis having played a major role in the colonial history of the district, the Forest department has said that it would preserve the remains of the serambi and also consider rebuilding it.
Serambi is a word from Kannada meaning hut.
“The serambis were built using teak wood. During colonial rule, officers stay in these serambis during short visits to the forest and distribute salaries to the forest staff,” says Radhakrishna Lal, a former forest range officer.
Each serambi comprises kitchen, bedrooms, bathrooms and all other necessities so that a few people can stay in one comfortably. There are four serambis in Wayanad forest. Apart from Pakkam, Tholpatty, Begur and Muthanga forests also have serambis. The Forest department maintains some of them, which are let out for tourists.
Renovation and maintenance of the Pakkam serambi, which is around two centuries old, has been a long-time demand.
“We have been demanding that the serambi be renovated and protected as a historical monument. The Pakkam serambi was the biggest and it was not maintained well at all. In the Malabar Manual, a guide to Malabar district published in 1887 by William Logan, an officer of the Madras Civil Service, Logan mentions staying at the Pakkam serambi,” N Badusha, an environmental activist, told TNM.
The rooms are constructed on the first floor and the basement is built using strong wooden sheets.
“These serambis also accommodated the assistants of the officers during British times and had space to tie their horses,” Lal says.
The architecture of the rest houses has received a lot of praise as the serambis have remained strong for more than a century. However, lack of maintenance took its toll on the serambis.
“The wooden pillars of the Pakkam serambi looked strong from the outside, but inside they were ruined by termites. The serambi was on the verge of collapse for the last many years,” Lal says.
Apart from this, some of the wooden parts of the serambi were earlier stolen, which made the structure weaker. However, for the last few years Forest officials had placed a guard near it so there were no thefts.
In 2013 when Ganesh Kumar was the state Forest Minister he had shown interest in renovating the serambi and developing the spot as a tourist centre. “There was a move to renovate the Pakkam serambi. It was close to Kuruva islands so there was a plan to develop it. It was a Rs 3 crore project which was later dropped,” he adds.
Local residents are urging that at least the remaining serambis should be protected and efforts should be made to rebuild the one in Pakkam.
“Maybe it is possible to recreate it. The Forest department should consider this while also making plans to protect the other serambis,” Badhusha says.