The name “ Jatayu” itself has prominent place in India history and culture since ages and it is a symbol of great valor and courage. “ Jatayu” is a symbol of women’s freedom from the evil and the recognition it deserves, has been justified by the Jatayu Earth’s Center of Thiruvananthapuram. Not aware, why this important character from Indian history has not been discussed about in our books and stories. May be some can answer….
Nevertheless, let’s start our journey towards this beautiful place which is located in the state of Kerala. The Jatayu Earth’s Center is located in Kollam district of Kerala and can be easily reached via rail, road and air. The nearest airport is Thiruvananthapuram which is approx. 55 kms from the airport and similar distance from the Thiruvananthapuram railway station. Another route is to travel to Kollam by Rail and then to visit this place via road which will be approx.. 30 kms from the Kollam railway station. So, in short, this place is well connected to rail, road and airways.
For my visit, my favourite railways was available which took me to the Thiruvananthapuram on a cloudy Sunday and from there, I had booked a cab to visit this place with to and fro journey. The travel time to Jatayu Earth’s Center from the Railway station was almost 90 minutes due to the mild city traffic and the narrow lanes towards this historical site. However, this duration can run upto 2 hours, as updated by my cab driver on normal days when the streets are more crowded. The Jatayu Earth’s Center is located on a small hill, so the last road approaching towards the center was bit hilly but it was almost 2 kms stretch only, which was a comfortable ride.
Ticketing
The cab dropped at the ticketing counter of The Jatayu Earth’s Center, which was very crowded being weekend after enquiring about the ticketing facility, I was shown a window where entry tickets were sold.
To my surprise, there was only one counter for sale of tickets and more than 100 visitors were waiting to purchase the entry tickets. There is no online ticket booking option for this site and a notice board was also displayed with the same message.
So, the only option available is to stand in a que and wait for your turn. This was really frustrating, that, such a wonderful place lacks the basic and modern ticketing system which can save lot of visitors time in ticketing and can given them more time to spend with the art.
The worst part of the entire ticketing system was that, they don’t accept payment through debit or credit card and only cash is acceptable. So, I was lucky enough, because I was carrying enough cash to buy the ticket, but at the same time feeling sad for others who were struggling to arrange for cash, especially, those who were travelling in groups.
All these things seemed to be very strange at a popular tourist site, that, online ticketing option is not available, digital payment option is not available. Now-a-days, even the government tourist sites are having option to purchase ticket through online mode and even an option is available to buy tickets through QR code installed at all the locations. The payment is also accepted through digital mode at all the sites of archaeological survey of India.
Hence, due to lack of all these facilities, the ticket issuance time was very high, because cash transaction was involved and that too when entry ticket price was Rs. 265.50 per person including tax. I was just observing the time, it was taking to issue one ticket due to the pricing structure, lack of sufficient infrastructure to cater the crowd on weekends, non-acceptance of digital mode of payment. But, there was no option and after waiting for almost 35 minutes, I was able to secure park entry ticket.