Just off the mouth of the Sharavathi River, a wooded island rises out of the Arabian Sea. This is Basavaraj Durga, a fort built around 1590 under Vijayanagara rule. Keladi's Shivappa Nayaka later captured it and renamed it after Prince Basavaraja.
Laterite walls ring the 19-hectare island. Eight old cannons lie among the ruins and a small temple stands on the grassy plateau at the top. Every year on Makara Sankranti (14 January) fishing families sail out to worship Nagadevata for protection at sea.
Visiting: landing on the island is restricted to that one day a year, Makara Sankranti. The rest of the year, enjoy it from a distance: from Eco Beach and the Kasarkod shore, from the river mouth at the estuary, or from a backwater boat ride.
Photo: Kumarcnaik (CC BY-SA 3.0), via Wikimedia Commons.
Tips
- Ask your boatman to point out the island on a backwater ride.
- If you're here for Sankranti, ask locally about boats and timings that year.
