A Sustainable Tourism Model for Keeladi and the Sangam Landscape

Abstract

This research addresses the critical need for a sustainable tourism paradigm in the Vaigai River Valley which is anchored on the record-breaking excavation site of Keeladi. Although Keeladi with its 6 th century BCE urban sophistication, demonstrated through carbon dating (580 BCE) reinvents the history of South Asia, the contemporary tourism cannot be seen as changing or tied to the local economy. In this paper, there are several suggestions to convert the corridor, which is a passive viewing model, to an active narrative immersion circuit through offerings of an Integrated Heritage Landscape (IHL) framework. Basing its drive to establish a local base of 80% employment in Sri Lanka, in its Black Ant Dambulla project, the model links urban-Keeladi, spiritual-Madurai, and merchant-Chettinad heritage of the region to franchise in the local region as much of the revenue as possible. Qualitative action-research was used and the visual ethnography was used in determining the ancestral connection between ancient items and contemporary crafts and utilizing Community Conversations with 200 Sangam households to confirm Indian cultural continuity. The audits of sustainability compared visitor limits and zero-waste measures with the UNESCO parameters. The research conducted by visual comparison substantiates the fact that there was a very strong living lineage in the technology of pottery and masonry and the Sangam people are the main holders of this lineage, which can be traced back to 2500 years. Findings indicate that the IHL model can bring the local employment to 80 percent and counter the economic leakage of 70 percent that is presently being experienced in the Sivaganga district. The idea behind the Village Lab proposes embodied learning which combines the 30x 20x 6 cm of fired-brick technology by Keeladi with theAthangudi tiles used by Chettinad and mural culture of Madurai. This is a decolonial style that reinstates the artisan as the key narrator connecting the past to the present life sources. The Vaigai Heritage Corridor has been used as a model of regenerative tourism, combining both archaeological meticulousness and indigenous skills to make sure that the Sangam landscape is an active ecosystem. The modifications suggested are a 3-day Heritage Loop by E-rickshaws (Electric Rickshaw), a Sangam Skill-Hub where the craft can be duplicated, and a millet culinary direction.