Danushkodi is a coastal town in Tamil Nadu with the Indian Ocean on one side and the Bay of Bengal on the other. It was the point where ferries would depart from India to Srilanka. An old railway line connected Chennai to Danushkodi after which passengers would board the ferry to Srilanka.
In 1964, a massive cyclone swept the city away. A train was on its way to Danushkodi. Its conductor could not see in the dark and took a call to drive onwards. The train plunged into the ocean leaving no survivors. All the houses in the town were razed to the ground. The government of India deemed the town 'unfit to live' and it has since existed a ghost town.
Last week, I visited Rameswaram with my family. We drove down to Danushkodi which is 20km away from the temple town. The drive gave us spectacular views of both the Indian ocean and the Bay of Bengal. It was only once we came to the cyclone hit town that time stood still.
At the old town center, there are remnants of the once bustling public structures that give us a grave idea of what the town had to offer. The coast itself is spectacular. Clean and pristine, the sea is rough on the side of the Indian Ocean but calm a the Bay of Bengal. Some local fishermen tell us that it is possible to reach Sri Lanka within a half hour. It is not allowed but being so close to the country makes you long to reach out and wish the trip were possible.
Today, a handful of fishermen have rebuilt temporary huts in the town. This is the soil they were born on, they say. And they cannot leave it. The point out to the old temple -some of it's old outer adornment is still intact. A few meters away, the old church is a point for tourists to take #wanderlust photos and for children to play hide and seek.
A chilling visit but also one of the most beautiful places I've ever been to.
Steepshot
Nice pictures especially the one with the boat.
It reminds me when I visited a ghost town in the US, Bodie (during the gold rush) . Really weird when you walk in these streets...
Thanks @heroldius! Yes, it's so eerie to walk on land that has suffered so much destruction that it has been abandoned. Need to look up Bodie, thanks for the link! You should tell us about your experience there.
Ghost towns always have an eerie feeling about them. And they are always a bit sad.
They evoke the same feeling as war memorials or sites of conflict. They're ruins and they're beautiful but it almost feels wrong to photograph them.
wow what a place to visit ! very haunting~
beautiful pictures you took, also <3
i have always thought of abandoned places with a kind of attraction and melancholy. there's a strange beauty to them...
this is a lovely post, thank you for sharing <3
It was indeed beautiful and yet so....stark and empty. A melancholy is the perfect way to describe the experience. I found myself wondering if inhabitation ruins beauty.
The pictures, well, are mostly just point-and-shoot photos from my phone camera. I prefer that to labouring over a proper photo apparatus, though. Gives me more time to experience my surrounding.
Thanks for stopping by!
This post was shared in the Curation Collective Discord community for curators, and upvoted and resteemed by the @c-squared community account after manual review.
Thank you @csquared :) Much appreciate the recognition after a manual review!
amazing spot! @finkistinger
It really is. Makes you think about sites of war or natural disasters and what they mean in the realm of traditional tourism.
Cool post, thanks.
Thanks for reading :)