On the evening of December 22, 1964, 14-year-old Purushothaman was playing with his friend Muniyasamy at his home at the railway quarters in Dhanushkodi. When he asked his friend to stay the night, a worried Muniyasamy refused, replying that he must go back to his house at the tip of the town to take care of his mother and the goats she was rearing. Both had no inkling of a severe cyclonic storm approaching their area. The deadly storm, while crossing Vavuniya in Northern Province of Sri Lanka [which was called Ceylon then] earlier in the day, had caused devastation in the island-nation.
As darkness set in, heavy winds buffeted the area. Mr. Purushothaman went to bed along with his four siblings and mother. His father, who was a cook in one of the two ships that used to ferry passengers to Sri Lanka and back, had gone to Rameswaram as his ship was under repair. At midnight, waking up to the seawater that had entered his home, Mr. Purushothaman and his family were alarmed as the water rose to hip-level.
Also read | The haunting Dhanushkodi cyclone of 1964
Today, the septuagenarian is one of the survivors of the cyclonic storm that destroyed the town on the intervening night of December 22 and 23, 1964. The entire railway station was wiped out, leaving behind only a couple of structures made of stone. The fragile man sporting a long beard is now a priest at a modest Shiva temple, which stands at the place where the railway station building once existed. “Fishing was the main occupation here. Besides them, loadmen, who worked at the railway station, formed the bulk of the population,” Mr. Purushothaman says recalling his good old days in the railway colony. Only the railway quarters had pucca houses. The fishermen lived in huts.
Another survivor of the disaster, V. ‘Neechal’ Kali, who is no longer alive, was born and raised in the coastal town. He went on to become a skilled swimmer, even crossing the Palk Strait between Dhanushkodi and Talaimannar in the Northern Province. A witness to the tragedy that remains a sad tale, Kali dreamt of his home town regaining its past glory, with bustling ferries, trade, and cultural exchange between India and Sri Lanka. But he breathed his last a few years ago without his dream coming true.
Kali’s grievance
Kali had a grievance: while representatives of the government, non-governmental organisations, and others pay tributes to victims of many tragedies, including the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and the Kumbakonam school fire, seldom have Dhanushkodi cyclone victims received tributes or recognition. He observed a fast on its anniversary yearly as long as he lived.
In an interview to The Hindu in 2010, Kali, who was 88 then, recalled that Danushkodi was a prosperous and flourishing coastal town with brisk business and trade activities till the colossal tragedy, with Southern Railway running Boat Mail (also called the Indo-Ceylon Express) from Madras Egmore (now Chennai Egmore) to Dhanushkodi to connect steamers Irvin and Goschen. Travellers were given tickets from Madras to Colombo and taken by the steamers to Talaimannar for the onward rail journey to Colombo and vice versa. The Boat Mail would bring tourists and pilgrims from Chennai to Dhanushkodi. A water tank rake for steam engines of trains, and two other trains from Madurai and Coimbatore would come to Dhanushkodi every day.
Most of the pilgrims would throng Dhanushkodi, where Lord Ram, according to the legend, worshipped Lord Shiva. “Even the idol of Lord Ramanathaswamy was brought from Rameswaram on amaavasai (new moon) of the Tamil months of Aadi and Thai for Theerthavari (a form of ritual wherein the idol is bathed in the sea),” Mr. Purushothaman recalls. The pilgrims would also visit the Muneeswaran, Santhana Mariamman, and Kooni Mariamman temples. International passengers would arrive by the Boat Mail and would board the steamers to reach Talaimannar and back. The vessels with three decks would carry passengers and foodgrains to Sri Lanka. “Fishermen used to mint money by bringing smuggled goods such as Rani Sandal soap, Nylex sarees, and Romer watches from Ceylon,” Mr. Purushothaman says.
Bureaucrat’s memoirs
Giving his account of events in his memoirs Service Uninterrupted, veteran civil servant M.M. Rajendran, who was the then Ramanathapuram Collector and later became Chief Secretary and Governor of Odisha, stated that when he and his colleagues reached Mandapam, the last point on the mainland, they found to their consternation that the entire Pamban railway bridge, connecting the mainland to Rameswaram, had been washed away. “…the train steaming from Pamban to Dhanushkodi in the night was washed away by tidal waves, leaving behind only the engine and the chassis of the bhogies [sic], the wooden superstructure of the bhogies [they were not integrated coaches in those days] was seen floating around. What happened was that in the long narrow island, the two seas in the north and south joined when the tidal wave struck and the train at that time was in the area of confluence of the seas,” Rajendran (who died last year) wrote, adding that the number of casualties in the train could not be estimated as many were “ticketless passengers,” even though the rough estimate was put at 500. This was apart from the residents of Dhanushkodi who died.
Recounting how the survivors came to terms with the reality, Mr. Purushothaman recalls: “We saw hundreds of flamingos from Australia lying on the land with their wings and legs injured. The survivors broke open the parcel office and brought some wheat. We used the files at the customs office as fuel to cook.” The next day, scores of people started to walk along the coast to reach Mandapam. The then Chief Minister M. Bakthavatsalam along with his predecessor — Congress president K. Kamaraj — flew down and visited the cyclone-hit areas. Merely hours before the cyclone hit the island, veteran film star Gemini Ganesan, who was on a pilgrimage, had left Dhanushkodi, the priest recalls.
Missing Link Road
After Dhanushkodi was devastated, it came to be called a “ghost town”. Only fishermen would venture into the sea from there. Pilgrims too would go there to offer oblations to their ancestors. With the only mode of transport no longer available, pilgrims could reach from Mukundarayar Chathiram only on four-wheel drive vehicles.
Tourists seen at the ruins of the Dhanushkodi church, which has become a popular spot for photographs and selfies.
| Photo Credit:
L. BALACHANDAR
Another consequence of the 1964 disaster was the Union government deciding to slow the execution of the Sethusamudram shipping canal project. Sensing its attitude, the Congress government in Tamil Nadu had even offered to appoint administrative and technical staff for acquisition of lands, construction of buildings, and improvement of communications in the cyclone-hit areas. Sometime later, the Sri Lankan government did not give its assent to carry out certain tests for the project. The project is still in limbo, though a serious bid was made to revive the project nearly 40 years later.
Dhanushkodi eventually got a road link in July 2017, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared open the 9.5-km road (5 km from Mukuntharayar Chathiram to Dhanushkodi and 4.5 km from Dhanushkodi to Arichal Munai), laid by Central authorities at a cost of about ₹70 crore.
Officially called Missing Link Road, the two-lane corridor with paved shoulders on either side has come up on a sandy bed. It has provided a much-needed impetus for the development of tourism, and every day, hundreds of cars and vans ply on the road, with tourists and pilgrims drawn to the scenic land strip flanked by the seas. As the waves from both seas repeatedly hit the road, the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has constructed a gabion wall to protect it from sea erosion. However, engineers are facing a new challenge of clearing the sand dunes which often accumulate on the road due to wind.
Kavitha, a fisherwoman who stays here in the daytime to cook for her husband and children who venture into the sea for fishing, points to the buried structure of the old railway station. Three tall stone pillars and a stone building are all that is left of the railway station, which have now become much sought-after sites for photographs and selfies. Shopkeepers display photographs of the ruins of Dhanushkodi — remnants of a church, dwelling units, and the old post office.
The lighthouse that was built at Dhanushkodi in 2022.
| Photo Credit:
L. BALACHANDAR
As an additional tourist attraction, the Directorate of Lighthouses and Lightships set up a huge lighthouse in 2022 at a site close to the decrepit railway station. A view from the top of the 49m lighthouse tower is a treat. The ever-growing number of tourists has resulted in several small eateries and shops selling goods made of seashells dotting the roadside, especially in Dhanushkodi and Arichal Munai, the tip of Rameswaram island. Dhanushkodi-Arichal Munai Road, which is closed for tourists after 4.30 p.m., has the potential of serving as an air strip to help landing of planes during emergency situations, an engineer says, suggesting further that the road be strengthened.
The Union government, keen on reviving the rail link to Dhanushkodi, initiated a project with Mr. Modi laying the foundation stone in March 2019 for the construction of a 17-km-long broad-gauge track. However, the ambitious plan to relay the railway track up to Dhanushkodi has hit a roadblock.
During a survey, the railway officials found that a new road laid up to Dhanushkodi had encroached upon railway land. Additionally, the officials were wary about the intrusion of seawater and sand dunes on Missing Link Road, which could pose hurdles to rail movement. A study suggested constructing an elevated structure to protect the tracks from sea water and sand. However, the project cost saw a manifold increase, from ₹208.3 crore to ₹733.91 crore due to this. Even as railway officials were confident of acquiring land, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced in Parliament in July 2023 that the Tamil Nadu government had requested the Centre to give up the project as the alignment was going through an “ecologically-sensitive zone”.
Memorial in neglect
A concrete structure erected in 1999 in memory of those who had lost their lives in 1964 is in ruins due to sheer neglect. It was inaugurated by Fatima Beevi, the then Governor of Tamil Nadu, at the old bus terminus in Mukuntharayar Chathiram. The granite flooring is broken, with tiles having peeled off. Even the letters on the marble plaque are visible only vaguely.
However, with discussions on the resumption of the passenger ferry service between Rameshwaram and Talaimannar coming up during the recent visit of Sri Lankan President Anura Kumar Dissanayake to New Delhi, pilgrims and tourists see a ray of hope with regards to reviving the glorious past of the island town.
Published – December 22, 2024 07:03 am IST