Dhanushkodi
Template:Short description Script error: No such module "about". Template:Use Indian English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Main otherScript error: No such module "Infobox".Template:Template otherScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".Script error: No such module "Check for clobbered parameters".Template:Main other Dhanushkodi is an abandoned town at the south-eastern tip of Pamban Island of the state of Tamil Nadu in India.[1] It is south-east of Pamban and is about Template:Convert west of Talaimannar in Sri Lanka. The town was destroyed during the 1964 Rameswaram cyclone and remains uninhabited in the aftermath. Although devoid of inhabitants, Dhanushkodi remains a tourist attraction due to its historical and mythological relevance.[2]
Geography
Dhanushkodi is on the tip of Pamban island, separated from the Indian mainland by the Palk Strait.
Transport
The National Highway completed the 9.5-km-long road – 5 km from Mukuntharayar Chathiram to Dhanushkodi and 4.5 km from Dhanushkodi to Arichal Munai.[3] Until 2016, Dhanushkodi was reachable either on foot along the seashore or in jeeps.[4] In 2016, a road was completed from the village of Mukundarayar Chathiram.[5][6]
A metre gauge railway line connected Mandapam on mainland India to Dhanushkodi.[7] Boat mail express ran from Chennai Egmore to Dhanushkodi till 1964 when the metre-gauge branch line from Pamban to Dhanushkodi was destroyed during the 1964 Dhanushkodi cyclone.[8][9] In 2003, Southern Railway sent a project report to Ministry of Railways for re-laying a Template:Convert railway line to Dhanushkodi from Rameswaram. The planning commission looked into the possibility of a new railway line between Dhanushkodi and Rameswaram in 2010.[10][11]
1964 cyclone
Template:Main article The area around Rameswaram is prone to high-intensity geomorphic activity. A scientific study conducted by the Geological Survey of India indicated that the southern part of Dhanushkodi facing the Gulf of Mannar sank by almost Template:Convert in 1948 and 1949, due to vertical tectonic movement of land parallel to the coastline. As a result of this, a patch of land of about Template:Convert in width, stretching Template:Convert from north to south, was submerged under the sea.[12]
On 17 December 1964, a tropical depression formed at 5°N 93°E in the South Andaman Sea. On 19 December, it intensified into a cyclonic storm. After 21 December 1964, it moved westwards, almost in a straight line, at the rate of Template:Convert per day. On 22 December, it crossed Vavuniya in Sri Lanka and made landfall at Dhanushkodi on the night of 22–23 December 1964. Estimated wind velocity was Template:Convert and tidal waves were Template:Convert high.[13]
An estimated 1,800 people died in the cyclonic storm on 22 December including 115 passengers on board the Pamban-Dhanushkodi passenger train.[14][15][16][17] The entire town was marooned and the Government of Madras declared Dhanushkodi as a ghost town, unfit for living.[18]
Around the 40th anniversary of the deadly cyclone, the sea around Dhanushkodi receded about Template:Convert from the coastline, briefly exposing the submerged part of the town before massive tsunami waves struck the coast on 26 December 2004.[19][20]
Gallery
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Mini Trucks take people to Land's End, Dhanushkodi, through deep sand and shallows, using planks put under wheels by local kids as the vehicle struggles.
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The sea from Land's End, Dhanushkodi. Sri Lanka is about 15 miles from here.
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Front view of the Kothandaramaswamy Temple at Dhanushkodi
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The Gulf of Mannar Marine Sanctuary is host to many marine animals and birds. Birds sighted here include flamingoes, curlew, gulls, terns, sandpipers, plovers, reef herons and egrets.
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A church in Dhanushkodi.
See also
- Dhanushkodi Tirtham
- Palk Strait bridge
- Kothandaramaswamy Temple
- Gulf of Mannar Marine National Park
- List of lost lands
References
External links
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- ↑ Railway Accident Report, Government of India, 1967
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