Revisiting The Ghost Town Of Dhanushkodi

I looked for Dhanushkodi on the map, saw it and liked what I saw. Dhanushkodi is located on the tip of Pamban Island which is separated from the mainland by Palk Strait. I realised how close I was standing next to Sri Lanka when phone started catching Sri Lankan network. I was told that I was a mere 30 kilometres away from Sri Lanka. Dark clouds loomed over me, residual sunlight tried hard to peek every now and then, and when the sea breeze started having its way with my hair I stopped walking and looked around me. The straight road ahead of me looked inviting and as I stood in the middle to get the real feel of the place, I became aware of my surroundings. Vast in area but everywhere I looked there was a feel of abandonment. The almost empty beaches on both sides of the road, save for some fishing boats and a stray shoe here and a dead fish there, flanked by Bay of Bengal and Indian Ocean, Dhanushkodi was one of the corner-most parts of India and I stood there, taking it all in.

A short distance ahead from where I was standing, I could hear hungry gulls and Brahminy kites looking for food, lines of souvenir shops stood there selling decorative items made out of shells collected from the beaches. A handful of tourists made Dhanushkodi a happening place that cloudy afternoon. I was there that afternoon to see Dhanushkodi ruins. Now also called Ghost Town, Dhanushkodi was once a bustling seaside village. In 1964, the town was hit by Rameshwaram Cyclone and the result of it is what we see today. Nothing stood the same after that cyclone, the town inhabitable and all that remained of that once beautiful town are few broken down houses, an old church, few unmarked and broken graves and an old railway track. Over the years a lot of land got submerged which once again made a short appearance when sea around Dhanushkodi receded from the coastline during the tsunami of 2004.