RAMESWARAM: A small cluster of buildings in utter ruins at Dhanushkodi, the southwestern extreme point near here, which bear testimony to the 1964 super cyclonic storm devastating this island, is now dissolving into their elements.
Dhanushkodi was not even accessible, but for the recent extension of the national highway from Rameswaram, almost 55 years after the tragedy. Now a large number of tourists and pilgrims are able to reach Dhanushkodi by road; and as more people visit the place, voices are growing for restoring the battered buildings there.
In particular, there are remnants of four distinct structures, which to old-timers bring back memories of Dhanushkodi once having been a bustling business centre to earn it the sobriquet 'Kutti Singapore’.
The old post office building, a Roman Catholic church built in the year 1914, a railway water tank, a Lord Ganesh temple and a few household dwellings, are further deteriorating with no efforts made since the cyclone to repair and restore these heritage buildings. Moreover, the dense salty winds and nature’s wear and tear over the past decades are also telling upon these structures.
(Left) The over 100-year-old Church in DhaSmall shops have come up near the ruined building as tourists flow picks up.(Photo: DC)
What is equally disturbing, according to some of the locals here, are the bricks of whatever is left of the Church being pulled out and taken as souvenirs by some over-enthusiastic pilgrims, who tend to give credence to ‘stories’ that those were the ‘bricks’ originally used by Lord Ram and his Monkeys’ army to build a floating bridge to Sri Lanka from here.
However, with the road access to Dhanushkodi from Rameswaram now firmed up, a cross-section of tourists and pilgrims, like David of France and Bhaskaran of Aathikadu, besides local residents like Mahalingam of Dhanushkodi, are unanimous in their view that the State and Central governments should take steps to restore these old heritage structures. It will also give a big boost to tourism and some income to the locals, they opined.
