Killa looks

One of the great obsessions of the late cartoonist Mario Miranda was to restore and conserve a fort in his native Goa For around two decades he doggedly pursued the matter through INTACH Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage Mario was the convener of INTACH the Goa government and all others concerned even arranging the required funds through the Helen Hamilton Trust in the UK to restore one of Goarsquos most picturesque forts the Reis Magos Fort located at a vantage point on the Mandovi river bank facing the capital city PanjimA pier of the Aguada Fort at Sinquerim Beach in Candolim is a vista of green and blue sugar and spice and everything niceThe fort which had fallen into disrepair was finally restored over a period of years by conservation architect Gerard DrsquoCunha and reopened to the public a couple of years ago Unfortunately the cartoonist died a few months before the fort could reopen But guess what The citadel now houses a museum dedicated to the early art works and cartoons of Mario MirandaGoarsquos forts draw a large number of tourists every yearOld is goldIt is the oldest fort in Goa first built around 1493 by the Adil Shah of Bijapur and subsequently rebuilt by the Portuguese in 1551 to protect the old city of Goa capital of the Portuguese empire in Asia further upstream on the Mandovi River It is located at the narrowest part of the river Reis Magos means lsquothree kingsrsquo in Portuguese and the place gets its name from the adjacent church dedicated to the three kings who visited the infant JesusSt Anthonys chapel inside Tiracol FortIn the old days new Portuguese governors arriving in Goa would disembark there and stay till the old governor would leave and then ceremonially enter the city of Goa present day Old Goa In the early part of the 20th century the fort was used as a prison a hospital and finally abandoned in 1993 only to be lsquorelaunchedrsquo after conservation work in 2012 to lsquoserve as a cultural and heritage centrersquoAguada Fort is Goarsquos most famous fortThe tiny fort at St Estavem near Old Goa was also restored in recent years though being a bit out of the way in a remote village which once formed the eastern boundary of the lsquoOld Conquestrsquo areas of the Portuguese era it has not yet become a part of the tourist circuitVagator Beach with the Chapora Fort on the hill behindThough most of them have been abandoned and are now in ruins Goarsquos 14 approximately forts are a big draw with tourists historians Bollywood and other regional cinemas because of their amazing locations and stunning vistas Most of them are on the Konkan coast strategically located at the mouths of rivers to block any intrudersThe biggest of them all is the Aguada Fort in Candolim which encompasses a whole mountain Thousands of tourists visit it every day Built by the Portuguese in 1613 to guard against the Dutch and Marathas it gets its name from the Portuguese word for water agua the water storeThere is a huge underground water storage chamber which can store 2376000 gallons of water the biggest such facility in Asia in those days and in the old days was visited by ships for replenishing their fresh water It once had 79 cannons and a lighthouse Like with forts in mystery novels it apparently also has a secret escape passage to use during times of war and emergencyPart of it is now used as a prison the plateau around has a helipad and the spectacular Vivanta by Taj Fort Aguada Resort is located within the ramparts on the seafacing western side The helipad has been used for many big music shows but a plan to build an amusement park has been blocked by some landowners who originally owned the landDown southExcept for the Cabo de Rama Fort in south Goa whose ramparts also encompass a mountain and which is now in ruins most of the other forts are tiny and were acquired from the Marathas by the Portuguese through conquests The prettiest of them all is probably the tiny Tiracol Fort on the GoaMaharashtra border on the Konkan coast Perched atop a high mountain it has sweeping views of the sea the shores and the river upstreamUntil a few months ago it was used as a boutique hotel by Moonrise Tourism It is now undergoing maintenance and restoration work at a cost of R 4crore and will then be turned into a venue for events like exclusive weddings according to the Goa Tourism Development Corporation GTDC to coincide with the Goa Tourism Departmentrsquos lsquoWedding Destinationrsquo theme this yearldquoIt can also be hired out to host music festivals heritage and cultural activitiesrdquo a senior GTDC official said ldquoWe have engaged the services of Punebased consultant to chalk out plans for its beautificationrdquo The idea is to make the forts selfsustaining ldquoMoney generated will be used for future maintenance of the fort and beautifying the area around itWe are also contemplating setting up a permanent sound and light show depicting the history of the fort to visitorsrdquo says GTDC chairman Nilesh Cabral an MLA of the ruling BJP government Goarsquos Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar says the Tiracol Fort though small has vast land holdings on the seaward sideBeing located at the extreme northern tip of the 105kmlong Goan coastline it is only visited by a trickle of tourists which gives it a more lsquoexclusiversquo air Entry for general visitors is also limited to certain areas and only resident guests can go down to what is probably by accident the only private beach in Goa because it is otherwise inaccessibleSays Parulekar ldquoThere is vast land there so without disturbing the fortrsquos structure or the CRZ Coastal Regulation Zone norms and using ecofriendly material like wood we are going to build a wedding centre there and Goa Tourismrsquos lsquoWedding Destinationrsquo theme will be launched thereWe also have plans to develop other forts like the ones at Alorna and Corjuvem But it is a tedious process as the forts come under the Archeological Survey of India ASI which comes under the Central government and getting permissions is a long process We managed to do the Reis Magos Fort and wersquore hoping that the other forts too can be restored and readapted for tourismrelated activitiesrdquo So if yoursquore looking for a historic location for your nuptials you know where to goHistoryrsquos pagesIn 1825 Dr Bernado Peres da Silva the first Goan born Viceroy of Goa used the fort as a base for an armed rebellion against the Portuguese It failed and he had to flee Goa During the late Portuguese era the Tiracol Fort because of its remoteness was used as a prison to jail Goan freedom fightersMany Goan forts have featured in Bollywood and other regional cinema The Aguada Fort was featured in Singham Most famously the sprawling Chapora Fort had a prominent role in the midrsquo90s film Dil Chahta Hai The name is the Portuguese corruption of Shahpur it was once a Muslim settlementOne of the sons of Mughal Emperor Shahjahan Prince Akbar who was jostling for control of the Mughal empire with Aurangzeb had made this fort his base after joining hands with the Marathas around 1683 But it is now known as the Dil Chahta Hai fort in tourism circlesThough there is no direct access to the hilltop fort hundreds of tourists still trudge up the steep slope to get to the top for the unforgettable views of the neighbouring beaches and the sea or rather for their Dil Chahta Hai moment It was once also used for Goarsquos infamous lsquoacid partiesrsquo during the hippie era of the 1970s80The forts in the coastal areas are lucky as being close to the popular beaches they are visited by thousands of tourists every day and therefore get some maintenance attention But the ones in the interior areas are largely neglectedThe small fort at Corjuvem on an island in the Mondovi River though still in a good condition is largely neglected and is slowly falling apart Others have nearly vanished with poorer people slowly taking away their laterite stone blocks to build their own homes There is not much left of the forts at Banastarim Sanquelim while some of the ramparts are still visible of the Mormugao FortThe Alorna Fort on the banks of a river is slowly crumbling because of neglect and nothing much remains of the remote Nanuz Fort in interior Goa Old Goa itself was once a huge sprawling fortified city and many of the fortifications can still be seen as one drives from Panjim to Old Goa and its surroundings