The work on ‘En Uru’, the first tribal heritage village in the State, is nearing completion. The village is being set up on 25 acres of land on the slope of a hillock with lush green surroundings at Pookode.
The project envisages to provide a permanent platform to showcase the diverse tribal traditional knowledge and heritage as well as to enhance the livelihood options of tribal communities. The ₹10-crore project is being set up jointly by the Tourism and the Scheduled Tribe Development departments.
The project was initiated by the then Wayanad Subcollector N. Prashant in 2012 with an initial cost of ₹3 crore, but the construction work started only in 2016 owing to technical issues. Later, the work was handed over to the District Nirmithi Kendra in 2016 and the first phase was completed in 2018.
“We have set up facilities such as a tribal market, tribal food outlets, a facilitation centre, and warehouse in the first phase of the tribal village in 2020,” O.K. Sajeeth, project manager, Nirmithi Kendra, Wayanad, told The Hindu.
The second phase would comprise an interpretation centre with 10 prototype tribal huts, rain shelter, toilet block, landscape works, art and crafts workshop, a shop to introduce tribal medicines to tourists, a cafeteria, an amphitheatre to showcase tribal art forms, heritage pathway, and children’s park. The major work under the project has been completed and the remaining are under way, says Mr. Sajeeth.
The construction work is being made in the ambience of a heritage village. Vinod Cyriac of Space Art, Kozhikode, is the consultant architect. The construction of a 1-km concrete road to the site and a pavement with laterite have been completed at a cost of ₹2.5 crore.
District Collector A. Geetha, who is also the chairman of the project, and Subcollector R. Sreelakshmi visited the site recently to assess the progress of the work.
“We expect that the project can provide direct employment to 50 persons and indirect job opportunities to nearly 500 people,” says P. Balakrishnan, secretary of the project. The project would likely be opened to the public by the second week of April, he adds.
