Somanathahalli, near Gulbarga in Karnataka, is represented by Union labour minister Mallikharjun Kharge. It also falls in Jewargi, an Assembly segment once represented by former chief minister N Dharam Singh. It doesn’t look like it, though. There is an air of perennial neglect, by the elected representatives, by successive state governments and even by its own people who have long deserted the place.
Today, the village has over 300 abandoned houses — legacy of a caste clash, of a granite lobby that wants the village for itself, and 60-year-old tales of the “demon” that supposedly lives there.
Located on the banks of the Bhima, the village has several natural resources. Somanathahalli and other villages in the region have large reserves of limestone. The cement factories in nearby Shahabad and Wadi towns covet this resource. In addition, there is granite as well. The village itself, however, has seen no development. It has about 700 residents, but no school or primary health centre.
It is so far back of the beyond that there is no bus service even. Compare that with Bangalore and Delhi where people fret over lack of bandwidth. The nearest government bus passes 5 km away, at the Katti Sangavi bridge. So the only way to get to Somanathahalli is by ‘tamtam’, a modified autorickshaw. A one-way tamtam ticket to Katti Sangavi costs `5. If for any reason, the tamtam doesn’t come, the only other option is to walk.
Not long ago, Somanathahalli was a largely upper caste Lingayat village — the same community as chief minister BS Yeddyurappa. The lower caste Kolis lived alongside them. Today, there is hardly one Lingayat to be found. Ghost stories abound about the deserted houses. The Kolis, largely farm labourers, are wary of outsiders.
A tiger attack on two Lingayat women, when the region was still under Nizam’s rule, is said to have started the migration about six decades ago.
Shanmukhappa, to whose family the women belonged, was the first to leave. A tiger entering a house is considered an ill omen and the prevalent belief is that the house should be vacated.
A few years after this, the Lingayat family occupying Shanmukhappa’s house suffered a tragedy. Sanganagouda and his nephew Mallinathagouda died within in a week. Further shocks were in store. Four other persons in the same locality committed suicide around the same time. That’s when the ghost stories started. Rumours of wandering spirits — some says it’s the devil haunting the village in the night — further terrified the people. A fortune teller from nearby Jewargi suggested people leave the village to “save themselves from the evil spirit”. But local CPI leader Shoukat Ali Alur feels the granite lobby is behind the unusual situation in Somanathahalli.
Today, all the Lingayats have moved out and settled in places like Gulbarga and Bijapur, and towns in neighbouring Maharashtra. They are said to be doing well after deserting the village.
Gulbarga’s Deputy Commissioner Vishal R says that the case of this mass migration and the tales of terror would be looked into.
Others, too, have done their bit. Three times, between 2005 and 2008, Gangadharendra Swamiji of Vishwaradhya Mutt of Abbetumkur in Yadgir district was requested to look into the situation. He walked through the streets on each of the three nights he stayed in the village.
According to him, his walks in the night were like a confidence-building exercise. He found no evidence of the spirit, but admitted that he too felt
uneasy when he walked by the house where 60 years ago the tiger mauled two women. His advice to the villagers was to demolish the ‘ghost house’.
Then, a few weeks ago, Murugha
Rajendra Sharanaru of the powerful Brihan Murugha Mutt of Chitradurga, also visited the village to instill confidence and to ask those who had deserted it to return. But there are no takers for his advice.
ramakrishnab@expressbuzz.com