Dhanushkodi: a ghost town awaits revival Premium

Survivor recalls 1964 Dhanushkodi cyclone that devastated the town, now a tourist attraction with a new lighthouse.

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 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.