The Hill Palace Museum in Tripunithura is sprawled over 52 acres. Built in 1865 as a Royal residence, there are today 49 buildings made up of galleries that hold artefacts from the erstwhile Maharaja’s personal collection of jewellery, paintings and sculptures. There is a children’s park and a deer park outdoors.
“Since we don’t know when the lockdown will lift, we are regularly cleaning and dusting and checking the artefacts for damage and decay,” says Karunadas TK, the Registrar of Centre for Heritage Studies and officer in-charge of the museum. “Close to 35 employees keep the premises clean, maintaining social distancing protocols prescribed by the government. The main concern now is to keep the museum pieces safe from dust and resultant damage. The traditional architectural elements of the nallukettu and ettukettu, with high ceilings and woodwork, allow pigeons, rodents and civets to get in. We have sought help from the Kerala Fire Force for cleaning,” he explains.
The deer park, which is maintained by the Centre for Heritage Studies, has over 300 spotted and sambar deer. It is being cleaned and spruced up by four or five employees taking turns to do that. The Department of Archaeology converted it into an ethno-archaelogical museum in 1986. The chunk of exhibits are from the royals family, the Paliam Devaswom and the Department of Archaeology.