Even as the tranquil waters of Punnamada Lake in Alappuzha are gearing up to host yet another edition of the Nehru Trophy boat race, the move to preserve Nadubhagom Chundan, the legendary snakeboat on which the first Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru hopped on after witnessing a race, has come a cropper.
While its successor with the same name is set to cleave through the waters as it competes in the prestigious regatta on August 12, the old Chundan lies abandoned in a field wrapped in a tarpaulin sheet at Nadubhagom in Kuttanad.
The move to set up a museum and to shift the Chundan there remains unfulfilled. A few months ago, Archaeology department officials visited Nadubhagom but there are hardly any measures yet to protect the historic vessel.
‘Will hand over for free’
Nadubhagom Boat Club (NBC), which owns the boat, says that they are ready to hand over the Chundan to the government for free if it comes up with a concrete project.
“The proposal to construct a museum was put forward by T.M. Thomas Isaac during his tenure as a Minister. As the project is getting delayed, we approached the government seeking measures to protect the Chundan. Though officials from the Archaeology department visited the site sometime back, we are yet to receive any response. We have built a new Chundan and are spending funds for its maintenance. The club is not in a position to expend a substantial amount to preserve the old Chundan,” says Johny N. George, secretary, NBC.
From the 1920s
The story of Nadubhagom Chundan dates back to the 1920s. In 1927, the people of Nadubhagom decided to compete in their own boat in a race at Champakulam. They bought a ‘palliyodam’ from Vembala in Aranmula. Later, the villagers transformed it into a Chundan. During Nehru’s visit to Alappuzha in 1952, the Chundan, following an exhibition race in which it came first, ferried him, his daughter Indira Gandhi and grandson Rajiv Gandhi to the Alappuzha boat jetty from the race venue. The trophy was initially named Prime Minister’s Trophy but later came to be known as Nehru Trophy.
The snakeboat stopped competing in races and the NBC retired it in 2013. They later built a new Chundan with the same name. The old Chundan was initially kept in a shed, which collapsed a couple of years ago.
‘Many renovations’
An Archaeology department official who was part of the team that visited Nadubhagom says that a report has been submitted to the directorate. “The vessel had undergone several renovations and only a small portion from Nehru’s time remains intact. Also, it is not 100 years old for the department to consider a takeover. The vessel has no archaeological value,” says the official.
