Why an Indian town on an island in Tamil Nadu that was battered by a cyclone and abandoned is attracting tourists again
- Danushkodi lies on Pamban Island off the coast of India’s Tamil Nadu state. The once thriving ‘mini-Singapore’ was abandoned after a devastating cyclone in 1964
- Some residents – mostly fishermen and their families – returned, but it remained a ghost town for decades. Now the tourists are coming back
Aravind’s yellow wooden fishing boat recently capsized in the Indian ocean, taking with it his wallet, ID cards and phone. He was lucky he didn’t lose his life, or his boat.
“Everything else can be earned back,” says the 40-year old fisherman, with a cheerful grin.
The day began like many others – he and three friends had set off on a fishing expedition at around 5am in calm conditions. And then, suddenly, there was water everywhere, he says.
Aravind lives in Danushkodi, a town at the end of a long spit hanging off the southeastern tip of Pamban Island – which lies just off the coast of southeast India’s Tamil Nadu state. Danushkodi has been abandoned by many of its residents but is again becoming a draw for tourists.
A mere 24km (15 miles) from Sri Lankan waters and lapped by the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal, this semi ghost town is little more than a blazing strip of baked white sand and the ruins of other times. As Aravind discovered, it is prone to violent changes in weather.
In December 1964, wild winds whipped over the Bay of Bengal and lingered over Danushkodi for days, becoming one of the most powerful cyclonic storms to hit India.
