Curdi is a village in Sanguem that resurfaces once every year. Very less people knew about this deserted spot, but over the last few years it has been attracting a lot of tourists.
Our weekend mission
I had always wanted to explore this place since I find the story behind it quite alluring as well as disturbing.
Long ago, Curdi was a highly fertile land. It had a population of over 3000 people who lived off it by agriculture and fishing.
In the 1960s, the Government of Goa took the decision to build the Selaulim Dam to supply water to South Goa. The price of this decision, however, was paid by the Curdikars. Thier houses and lands would be submerged by the ambitious project. The villagers made this sacrifice for the greater good of thier fellow Goans and they were relocated to Valkini were till date they face water supply issues.
Today, if you visit this village, you will see echos of the past. Lots of houses and structures have crumpled away leaving behind only thier porches and front doors.
In some places, the houses no longer stand but the Cross and the Tulsi still stand tall.
It is kind of eerie for me when I look around at the landscape and try to imagine what this village must have been like in it’s prime.
The old police station
An abandoned well
The villagers still celebrate thier roots here. Every year when the water recedes, they return for the Someshwar temple Utsav and the Feast at the Chapel, which lies above the water line at a hillock.
Someshwar Temple
A few kilometers away from the Someshwar temple was the Mahadev temple constructed during the Kadamba period. During the evacuation, the temple was systematically dismantled, over a period of 11 years, stone by stone, and relocated 17 kms away.
Dark clouds gathering
Barren soil
There is a calmness to this place that is hard to explain. It is not exactly at peace but it has sort of resigned to it’s fate.
