Kochi's first railway station lies buried in forest: Why does it stay neglected?

The rash of creeping plants and mounds of bone-dry leaves look like remnants of a bygone era. If the dry leaves are cleared, the sacred footprints of Mahatma Gandhi may surface. And a few paces away, if the cobwebs of long-standing neglect are literally blown away, the proud face of Rama Varma Rajarshi, the ruler of Cochin who sold his gold crown for the cause of the nation, may emerge. It's been conveniently forgotten that Swami Vivekananda and Rabindranath Tagore set foot at this railway station during their visit to Kochi, decades ago. Mahatma Gandhi, too, had arrived here while heading to Vaikom to take part in the path-breaking agitation related to the temple there.

A king's vision
Rama Varma Rajarshi is the Maharaja who paved the way to facilitate the future growth of the region. Rama Varma Rajarshi, who ruled from 1895 to 1914, was instrumental in initiating path-breaking reforms in Cochin. The Kochi city’s first railway station was built near the Mangalavanam Bird Sanctuary at High Court Junction.  

The Maharaja informed the British about his wish to extend the railway line, which ended at Shoranur, to Cochin, and the direction from them was to levy more taxes on common people. But the Cochin king didn’t want to put more burden on people at a time when the exchequer was fast depleting. Rama Varma Rajarshi boldly decided to sell 14 gold caparisons of the Tripunithura Sree Poornathrayeesa Temple to raise funds to extend the railway line to Cochin. But he couldn’t generate the required money from the sale and had to sell his golden crown to kick-start the project. And finally, a train chugged into the Cochin Kingdom on July 16, 1902. The Shoranur-Cochin railway line was laid for Rs 42 lakhs then. 

Why was it forgotten?
The old railway station was overlooked when the South Railway Station came into existence in 1929. Though passenger trains used to pass through the old railway station till 1960, eventually those services also stopped. Later, the station was converted into a goods shed in 2001. With no activity, the facility became idle and the building, which was built with red bricks, started to collapse. The floors made of Italian marble lie buried under heaps of sand. Without any maintenance, the major portion of the railway lines is also covered in mud. Sadly, the old railway station is now a walled verdant forest spread across 42 acres of land. 

History enthusiasts beware...
The dilapidated station building behind the Kerala High Court in the Mangalavanam forest has a haunted look, with its share of snakes and other creepy creatures. Local people have also complained of the presence of anti-social elements in the region, in the past.
Though many projects, such as a suburban hub, railway medical college, and Southern Railway maintenance hub, were mooted on the terminal premises, nothing materialized. The Southern Railway had given the nod for projects to convert the old railway station into a new railway station, but later, everything came to a grinding halt. 
The authorities concerned should wake up from the slumber and act fast to preserve the age-old building that gives a peek into the glorious past of the erstwhile Kingdom of Cochin.