Tamil Nadu: From pillar to post, the vanishing letterbox

COIMBATORE: For P Kannan, a postman from the Ooty head post office in the Nilgiris district, opening letterboxes during the festival season was like opening presents. “Letters and greeting cards would burst out of the boxes when I opened them.” But all that changed a decade ago. “The letterboxes are virtually empty all year round as people have moved their greetings online,” says the 51-year-old.
In the past two decades of service, Kannan has worked in several locations in the district. “The day would be packed as I would have to shuttle from one letterbox to the next to ensure people were getting their mail on time.” Today, it’s more about shuttling about to locate the letterboxes as most have been dismantled. “There were ten letterboxes in Lovedale, along a stretch of 3km. Now there are just two letterboxes here.”
Until 2020, D Vasanthakumari, a retired postwoman in the Sirivani Foothills, used to trek several kilometres to deliver letters to the tribal communities settled there. But she loved walking the extra miles, she says, for the smiles. “People’s faces would light up when they received letters. It made my day. But slowly the personal mail reduced and it became mostly official mail,” says Vasanthakumari, now 65.
In Tamil Nadu, the department of posts is on a letterbox-removing spree because of poor utilisation. About 700 letterboxes, which were by and large used sparingly, were removed across the state. Now there are 7,385 letterboxes in Tamil Nadu.
“Removing letterboxes is a routine exercise and is carried out based on usage,” says chief postmaster general of Tamil Nadu circle B Selvakumar. “People are choosing registered post over ordinary post as it is easier to track it online,” he says. Personal mails are more or less down to a trickle, he says, with people using the post only for official communication and parcels. “We are seeing a 10% to 15% increase in revenue in speed posts,” he says. Another official says that postmen will continue to deliver speed post and speed parcel and be engaged in other services, and that removing letterboxes will not hamper recruitment.
“We have plans to reuse the removed letterboxes if they can be repaired. Otherwise, they will be auctioned through the Metal Scrap Trade Corporation Limited which functions under the Union ministry of steel,” says Selvakumar.
In Coimbatore, places like Puliyakulam Road, Gandhipuram bus stand, Avinashi Road, Trichy Road, and Big Bazaar Street, which had letterboxes, don’t have them anymore. There are a few places including Nanjundapuram where letterboxes are in bad shape.
“The first tower-structured letterbox in Coimbatore district was installed at the Podanur post office on October 1, 1882, after it was shipped from London,” says retired postmaster in Coimbatore N Hariharan, who was conferred a national award for his service. “There was an incident in 1993 at Chinnampathy hamlet in Coimbatore about harassment of tribals and the information could not be communicated properly as there were no phones in the area at that time,” says the 79-year-old. “Justice R Banumathi insisted that a letterbox be installed in the hamlet immediately. We must not ignore the necessity of a letter box fully in this technological era. Most of the remote and hilly villages are still in need of them,” says Hariharan.
In the 1800s, letterboxes were painted green to blend in with surroundings. Later, the c o l o u r w a s changed to red to increase visibility. Who would have thought that o n e d ay t h e y would be in the red.