By Our Correspondent,Hile, Sept. 23: It has been nearly 30 years since the ethnic museum, built to preserve and display the art and culture of 16 different castes and ethnicities of the then 16 districts of the Eastern Development Region, was opened to the public. Yet, it has failed to catch the attention of domestic and international tourists.

The museum was built in 1982 and opened in 1994. In 2018, the provincial government invested a further Rs. 4 million to collect additional artefacts, including jewellery and musical instruments, of the relevant communities. But that has also not succeeded in bringing the expected 

number of visitors.

In the fiscal year 2018/19, a total of 1,627 people visited the museum. The next fiscal year 2019/20, that number dropped to 234 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020/21, the museum saw 478 visitors.

In 2021/22, 1,061 people visited and last fiscal year, 2022/23, brought 1,200 visitors, informed museum chief Chandra Prakash Adhikari.

Adhikari felt that the low number of visitors was due to a lack of awareness in the society. "We need to inform people about the museum and advertise the items housed here."