THE MYSTERIOUS GHOST TOWN OF DHANUSHKODI

During the short Christmas break that I had two months ago, I visited my village that is located in the interiors of Ramanathapuram district. I have heard a lot of stories about the abandoned village of Dhanushkodi, that is around 80 kms away from my hometown, Keelakarai. I did visit the place earlier, around four years ago, but did not have much knowledge about the place nor the time to tour around and interact with the indigenous people dwelling there. I faintly remembered that the population of the small town was very sparse so decided that, for my Students Awareness Program (SAP) assignment, I could do a small survey about the people of this community. To briefly introduce about this small coastal village; Dhanushkodi is an abandoned town at the south-eastern tip of the Pamban Island in the State of Tamil Nadu. It is located towards the south-east of Pamban and is about 24 kilometres west of Talaimannar in Srilanka.

AERIAL VIEW OF DHANUSHKODI ISLAND

The town was completely destroyed during the 1964 Rameshwaram cyclone and still remains uninhabited since the aftermath. This town is identified as one among the Ghost towns in India. There are so many mythologies and legends of the past that this town is popularly known for. The beauty of this ghost town is a visual delight on a clear night, the Sri Lankan coast is clearly visible, which is just 30 kilometres from here. The island is connected to the Indian mainland, only by the Pamban bridge. The town which was once a thriving coastal village and an important transit point between India and Sri Lanka. The town with infinite legends has now been reduced to ruins and mystic stories today. Until 2016, which was during my previous visit, the town was reachable either by sturdy jeeps or by foot along the seashore, wading through the escapades of water.

RUINS OF AN OLD ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH

It was developed as a small port by the British circa 1914, and eventually became a bustling town with pilgrims, travelers, fish workers, traders and others. Half a century later, in 1964, a massive cyclone that started at midnight on December 22 and went on till the evening of December 25, devastated the port-town in the Rameswaram taluk of Ramanathapuram district. Gigantic waves triggered by the cyclone flattened the entire town and killed more than 1,800 people and a train coming from Pamban, some 30 kilometres away, carrying well over a 100 people, derailed and was fully submerged in the sea. The National Highway completed the 9.5-km-long road – 5 km from Mukuntharayar Chathiram to Dhanushkodi and 4.5 km from Dhanushkodi to Arichamunai.

Tourists can visit the site with their own vehicle and end up with Pillars of Ashoka. Earlier. a metre gauge railway line connected Mandapam on mainland India to Dhanushkodi. The Boat mail express ran from Madras, Egmore to Dhanushkodi till 1964 when the metre-gauge branch line from Pamban to Dhanushkodi was destroyed during the 1964 cyclone. In 2003, Southern Railways sent a project report to Ministry of Railways for re-laying a 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) railway line to Dhanushkodi from Rameswaram. The planning commission looked into the possibility of a new railway line between Dhanushkodi and Rameswaram in 2010.

A PHOTOGRAPH DEPICTING THE TERRAIN OF DHANUSHKODI

The area around Rameswaram is prone to high-intensity geomorphic activity. A scientific study conducted by the Geological Survey of India indicated that the southern part of Dhanushkodi facing the Gulf of Mannar sank by almost 5 metres (16 ft) in 1948 and 1949, due to vertical tectonic movement of land parallel to the coastline. As a result of this, a patch of land of about 0.5 kilometres in width, stretching 7 kilometres from north to south, submerged under the sea. The entire town was marooned and the Government of Madras declared Dhanushkodi as a ghost town, unfit for living. There is a constant displacement of land and water and it is clearly visible during the travel and tourists are not allowed to be there in the location after 5pm.

PAMBAN BRIDGE

After the cyclone, the place was variously called ‘ghost town’ or ‘unfit to live’ and was left in a state of total neglect. However, almost 400 fish worker families (estimates a local panchayat leader), continue to live in Dhanushkodi and see this barren land as their only home. Some of them are cyclone survivors who have been living here for over 50 years without electricity, toilets or even potable water. Even though the place is open to tourism, there is no accessibility to restrooms and I had my own unfortunate experiences during my visit, it was a knock on the head moment for me to have a roof above my head. There are ruins of an old church, a hospital and several other statures and they are left as it is. There is no solid infrastructure or homes built for the people.

As I walked around the place, I had the opportunity to talk to a few vendors and fishermen who lived in huts and went around asking them about the conditions of living. The island is split into a cluster of smaller Islands and only two or three among them are barely inhabitable, that is; only those of the few have a comparatively larger land area. One of which faces the Bay of Bengal and the other faces the Indian Ocean. The people of the community are subjected to shift back and forth depending upon the tides. A lady named Meenakshi said that, “the tides keep coming into the land and there is a displacement of water and land. There is no scope for development as this area is prone to destruction very easily. We need to go to the nearby villages to procure goods for selling to the tourists and we make a living out of the small amount of fishing we do and by selling handmade jewelry”.

It is very difficult to think of the living conditions of the people around, I wanted to find a restroom, but there wasn’t any, and the micro population there just have top open huts to bathe and that’s all, improper facilities for sanitation. I tried to make a phone call but there was no network, once we enter the 9 km long strip of land, the signal is completely dead and I did ponder over how people communicated with one another. If someone is lost in a place like this, then it is very difficult to even find back a way. Now that there is curfew from 4pm and the police keep restricting the entry of vehicles and send away those that are in the area . The people of the village still believe that the spirits of the people who had lost their lives in the cyclone still haunt the place and that’s why it is referred to as a “ghost town”.

A SMALL SHOP SELLING REFRESHMENTS

As per mythology, Dhanushkodi was the spot where Lord Rama and his army built Ram Setu, otherwise known as Adam’s Bridge across the sea connecting Rameshwaram Island (Tamil Nadu) and Mannar Island (Sri Lanka), to rescue his wife Sita from the clutches of the demon king Ravana. After rescuing his wife, Lord Ram destroyed the bridge with arrows from his bow, on request of Vibhishan (the Lanka King), thus the name of the town became ‘Dhanushkodi’, meaning ‘end of the bow’.

It is free of cost for entering the place, but in the coming year, the Tourism Authority of India has decided to have an imposition of minimal charges, and there would be some subsidies given to the people from that, although it does not promise to develop the infrastructure as for the reasons that have been mentioned earlier. The entire place can be toured within 2-3 hours and another thing to note is that the land is also not cultivable, so the people have to rely on the nearby towns in Rameswaram to get their basic groceries. The region does not have schools, hospitals or even proper electricity supply.

SHUTTLE VAN SERVICES TO REACH THE ISLAND OF DHANUSHKODI

And of course, as it is categorized as an uninhabitable place, the local community is scattered and now live in the nearby villages and come back to set up their small shops everyday in the island and make a living out of the meager sums of money they get by vending it to the tourists. It had me thinking all day of how much we have been privileged in life, to be thankful for the simple and basic necessities that we can meet up with. Exploring places like these is certainly a humbling experience for me and I certainly hope and urge that , we as people must get more and more sensitive with issues like these. I really wish that the archaeological department could give assistance with the maintenance of the ruins and that the government would provide incentives for the homeless people in there. It is small, yet plays a significant change in the lives of the small population that dwells in Dhanushkodi. Hence, to sum it all up , my visit to this place was very life changing and made me very empathetic, sensitive and grateful for what I have in life.