The Nilgiri Documentation Centre (NDC) has called on the Forest Department to drop its plans to set up a museum at the abandoned cinchona factory and the Chinese jail in Naduvattam in the district.

Venugopal Dharmalingam, honorary director of the NDC, stated that other museums in the Nilgiris, such as the tribal museum at the Tribal Research Centre in Nanjanad, “had been languishing for years,” while the John Sullivan museum in Kotagiri was also in a state of neglect.

“A tea museum set up years ago at the Naduvattam site has fallen into disuse. A police museum proposed in Ooty is a non-starter. In these circumstances, the proposed fanciful museum in the name of local tribes and culture appears superfluous and a waste of public funds,” he said.

He added that the Chinese connection to the jail in Naduvattam is a piece of history to be preserved and not converted into a fanciful experience centre. “Any alterations or additions to the existing site will be a violation of heritage rules,” Mr. Dharmalingam added.

The Forest Department recently unveiled plans to convert the site into a “low impact eco-tourism hub.”

“Naduvattam is a corruption of the Badaga name Nedubetta, meaning ‘range of hills’. They form the western border of the traditional Naku Betta (Four Mountains) of the Badaga territory. The area does not have any tribal or indigenous significance as it was originally infested with malarial jungles,” he added.