Residents rally to protect crumbling Vazhi Ambalam in Kollam's Kareepra

ONCE a vital rest stop for weary travellers under the Travancore dynasty, the more-than-a-century-old 'Vazhi Ambalam', a traditional roadside waiting shed, still stands in Kollam, albeit in a crumbling state.

- RAHUL R @Kollam

Alongside it lies a Chumaduthangi (load-relieving stone), a structure used by travellers to keep the heavy load they carried on their heads. An adjacent travellers' well, a crucial source of water in its time, is already in ruins.

Located in the quiet village of Kareepra in Kollam, the Vazhi Ambalam is one of the few surviving examples of its kind. Locals, who still use it for shelter, are urging the authorities to restore it, saying it connects them to their roots and to a forgotten culture of communal travel. With the adjoining well lost to time, the decaying structure now stands as a symbol of neglected heritage - and a community's fight to preserve it.

According to Suresh Madhav, a local historian and teacher at NSS College, Pandalam, the structure and its associated components might have been built during the reign of Travancore king Anizham Thirunal Marthanda Varma.