Believe it nor not! A village in Goa emerges from under water just one month in a year

Feb. 3: Nestled amid the Western Ghats with the Salaulim river running through it in South Goa district, Curdi was once upon a time a flourishing village bustling with over 600 families. But all that is in the past because the beautiful hamlet disappeared under water.

This village in Goa becomes visible for just one month in a year whereas, during the rest of the remaining 11 months, it disappears underwater, thus disappearing from common sight. So what really happened?

It’s indeed a woeful tale of awe. With almost 3,000 residents living on the fertile lands of Curdi village, things began to change in 1961 after Goa got its independence and became part of India. Soon after, the first Chief Minister of Goa, Dayanand Bandodkar declared the construction of the state’s dam.

The construction was meant to provide around 400 million litres of water per day in Southern Goa. However, the residents were forced to relocate to nearby villages. “He (Dayanand) said it will drown our village, but our sacrifice will be for the greater good,” recalls 75-year-old Gajanan Kurdikar who once lived in the village.

The state’s first dam was constructed and, as a consequence, the village was completely submerged and in 1986, the village as its residents knew it, ceased to exist.

The families left Curdi and relocated to nearby villages where they were given land and compensation. Despite losing their homes, the water from the dam never reached the villages where former residents were rehabilitated. “The tap system did not come through to all villages of South Goa as promised. So we do not get our drinking water from the dam,” Gajanan Kurdikar says.

When the water recedes every year in May, Curdi reveals what is left of it and the inhabitants visit their lost homeland. Some residents gather for an annual Chapel feast while some host a temple feast during that month.  Houses are now in ruins, of course, and all you can see mostly are bare walls. The Someshwar Temple has survived however, and with some temporary refurbishments.

For the past couple of years, Soul Travelling, a Goa-based travel outfit, specialising in offbeat tourism, takes a small group of people down to the area. “Of all the villages we have traversed and marked with our footprints and our inquisitiveness, Curdi is by far the most mysterious and the most beautiful of them all with a story like none other,” says Varun Hegde one of the people behind Soul Travelling. Curdi perhaps hasn’t made its mark on the global map, he says, but for Goa it’s a prized jewel, owing to its rich history, and its hallmark sacrifice for the Salaulim Dam.

With inputs from inshorts…