Some 20 km from Rameswaram, bordered by the Bay of Bengal on one side and the Indian Ocean on the other, Dhanushkodi, at the south-eastern tip of Pamban island, is one of the most spectacular stretches of Tamil Nadu. The sea and the ocean merge at Arichal Munai (Arichal Point), and Sri Lanka is barely 18 km away from here.
With a number of ferry services between Dhanushkodi and Talaimannar in Sri Lanka, the town served as a major point of entry to India until in 1964 a cyclone devastated it. Everything in sight was destroyed, and an entire train with its passengers was washed away. Today, the entire area remains covered by white sand and there are vast stretches of arid land. The ruins of a railway line, the port office hospital, church and the old school are grim reminders of the havoc wreaked by the killer cyclone. The once picturesque and bustling town, thanks to its strategic location, was declared “unfit to live ” and abandoned by the government.
Many celebrities from Tamil cinema and politics, including MG Ramachandran, CN Annadurai, Gemini Ganesan and Savitri came forward to help rehabilitate the victims. The then collector in Rameswaram, Natarajan, donated land for the victims and the area is today called Natarajanpuram.
Amid this desolate landscape, nearly 400 families continued to live and work in the town. There is no hospital nearby, nor do they have electricity supply. With little or no connection to the outside world, life is tough for these families. While travel from Rameswaram to Mohant Rai Chattram, a police checkpoint in Dhanushkodi, is possible, vehicles cannot venture beyond this point as of now due to the ecological sensitivity of this region.
There are plans to lift this restriction on July 27, and allow tourists to travel to the furthest tip of Dhanushkodi — the Arichal Munai. The town’s fishermen hope this will herald a new dawn of development for the region.
Deepti Asthana is a Mumbai-based photojournalist
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