Top 10 Most Haunted Places in India
India has its share in history of haunted places, hawelis (bungalows), khandars (ruins), and forests. Just the idea of an haunted place send us down the memory lane of stories we heard of ghosts we heard as a child. Here is a compilation of top 10 most haunted places in India.
10. Sathyamangalam Wildlife Sanctuary, Tamil Nadu
The Sathyamangalam Wildlife Sanctuary, the largest wildlife sanctuary in Tamil Nadu is an important wildlife corridor in the Nilgiri biosphere between the Western and Eastern Ghats. It is the proposed fourth tiger reserve in the state. National Highway NH 209, which connects Coimbatore to Mysore and joins the State Highway 15 runs through the forest. The forest is more famous as to the home to legendary Indian bandit, Koose Muniswamy Veerapan. After Veerapan was killed in 2004, there have been reports by the tribal people and travellers of screams in the middle of the night and unattended lanterns deep in the forest, which sometimes were reported as floating in the air. There are frequent ghost sightings on roadsides and the forest is referred as “The most haunted place in Tamil Nadu.”
9. Ramoji Film City, Hyderabad
The Ramoji Film City holds the record as the world’s largest integrated film studio complex covering 6.42 square kilometers. It is also a popular tourist attraction and includes anamusement park. It attracts over a million tourists every year. At the entrance of the studio there are two hotels located. The hotels are believed to be haunted. The whole studio has been rumored to have been built up on war grounds of Nizam sultans. According to witness reports, leftover food has been found to be scattered around the room, strange marks left on the mirrors resembling Urdu, knocks from the bathroom doors locked from outside. There have also been incidences of paranormal phenomenon happen during shoots like lights falling off the ceiling, light men (who sit with the lights on top) have been pushed by unknown forces and have been seriously injured on multiple occasions.
8. Shanti Nagar Village, Delhi
A number of incidents of ghost possessions came forward in the Shanti Nagar, a village about 11 miles northwest of Delhi, formerly part of Southern Punjab. It later became a topic of fieldwork in 1957-59 and 1977-78 by Ruth S. Freed and Stanley A. Freed, which was later released as Ghosts: Life and Death in North India for publication. The summary of the publication is, “Ghosts are not phantoms floating on the periphery of village life, the concern only of children and the credulous. Rather, the study shows that ghosts are linked with basic Hindu beliefs, village lore, ancient curing practices and theories, the diagnosis of illness and treatment of disease, individual stress and anxiety, and family, lineage, and village histories. Ghost possession, a subsidiary and dramatic form of ghost illness, is behavior in which the ghost speaks from its victim who undergoes a range of alternate states. Unpredictable events and heightened personal stress generally precede episodes of ghost possession. Cases of ghost illness and ghost possession include children and adults of both sexes and a range of ages. The villagers stereotyped that only women suffer from ghost possession. Villagers have recourse to both traditional remedies and Western biomedicine to treat ghost illness.”
7. Dow Hill, Kurseong, West Bengal
Kurseong is a hill station located in Darjeeling district of West Bengal. Kurseong lies 30 km from Darjeeling. Dow Hill in Kurseong is often reported to be a centre of paranormal activities and several accidents have taken place in the vicinity of the town as per the locals. The locals rumor that they can hear sounds of footstep emanating in the corridor of the Victoria Boys Higher Secondary School during long holidays of December to March. A number of murders have been committed in the woods near the school and that has left a sense of eerie feeling in the air. There have even been reports of a headless boy between the stretch of Dow Hill road and Forest Office, who later disappears into the woods. The locals say that anyone who has seen him is not even spared by his apparition in their dreams.
6. Delhi Cantonment, Delhi
Delhi Cantt is one of the three statutory towns that make up the National Capital Territory of Delhi. Delhi Cantt area which is full of lush green vegetation is one of the most haunted area in Delhi. A pure white sari clad woman spectre is seen gliding around with a candle is one of the most popular sightings in this area. Possibly the lady was hitchhiker while she was alive, and hence she waves at lonely passengers and if denied is said to run swiftly alongside the car at high speeds and suddenly disappears. Mostly the sightings have been reported near the metro station of Dwarka.
5. Lambi Dehar Mines, Uttarakhand
The Lambi Dehar mines are located on the outskirts of Mussoorie. There used to be strip mine and lime quarries that have long been shut because of irregularities with a lot of safety regulations and a number of incidents of trucks veering off the roads and falling down the hills. The town was inhabited by nearly 50,000 workers in the 1990s, a lot of whom died a very painful death, coughing blood, due to lung diseases caused by improper mining. Today the town is very sparsely populated and has been a ghost town for 20 years. Trees have grown in the houses and there have been reports of strange sounds at night. With reports of cars and trucks going off the road and a reported incident of a helicopter crash, it leaves little to the imagination. Legend has it that there’s also a witch that walks down the mountains screaming. It is also a scary place due to its remoteness from any civilization and with its record of deaths.
4. Tunnel no 103, Shimla-Kalka Railway Line, Himachal Pradesh
Shimla has its share of ghost stories associated with it. One of the more famous one is Tunnel no 103 on Shimla-Kalka railway line where there have been reported apparitions of a British Colonel, Col. Barog and other Englishmen. Though much is not known about him, one fact for sure is that he was the person assigned with the task of constructing the tunnel. After work started on digging the tunnel, on reaching the center, he found out that both ends did not align properly and therefore was heavily penalized. He was so ashamed of his error that he shot himself. Mostly, it is the spirit of Col. Barog mounted on his horse that is reported. It is also surprising due to the fact that on confrontation, the Englishman responds to humans and people are said to have had long conversations with it. There have also been reports of a woman apparition, who jumps into a well screaming and a man walking lighting his cigarette. These are reported mostly by people venturing into the tunnel on foot and there have hardly been reports of these apparitions when travelling by train.
3. Brijraj Bhavan Palace, Rajasthan
The Brij Raj Bhawan Palace Hotel, a heritage hotel, set in beautiful gardens stands on the banks of the Chambal river, near the city of Kota in Rajasthan in India. It has the only ghost of the Sepoy Mutiny still “active”, the ghost of Major Charles Burton, killed by Indians in the 1857 armed revolt against the British. In 1857, the building was the British Residency and the home of the resident posted to Kota, Major Charles Burton. Abandoned by all their servants, except one camel-driver, Major Burton and his two sons took refuge in an upper room with the few arms that they had been able to snatch and waited for help to arrive from the Maharaja. Mutineers ascended to the terrace and Major Burton and his two sons, who had retreated to the room below, were murdered. The former maharani of Kota told British journalists in 1980 that she used to see Major Burton frequently, as the room in which he was killed, was being used as her drawing room then. An elderly man with a cane in his hand, ghost of Major Burton does not harm anybody, but during his night visit, if any of the guards are sleeping or dozing, Major Burton gives them a slap.
2. Dumas Beach, Gujarat
Dumas Beach is an urban beach located 21 km south west of Surat. Famous for its black sand, it is a very popular tourist spot in south Gujrat. It stands 2nd in Asia for the most haunted place. This stretch of beach has been notorious for paranormal activities. One of the main reasons being pointed out is that Hindus burn their deceased on the beach. The locals complain of hearing weird noises and screams during nights. People also report hearing strange whispers on Dumas Beach. Dogs are reported to behave weird around the ocean and cry at night. There have been many instances of tourists, who venture out to walk the beach during nights going missing.
1. Bhangarh Fort, Rajasthan
Bhangarh is a ghost town in India that is famous for its historical ruins. It is in the Rajgarh municipality of the Alwar district in the state of Rajasthan. It is now mostly a deserted town supposedly after it was cursed by a tantrik (person practicing black magic). It is infamous for its fort that is believed to be haunted. There are many legends as to its history and reasons why the fort still is haunted. According to legend, the city of Bhangarh was cursed by the Guru Balu Nath, who sanctioned the construction of the town on one condition, “The moment the shadows of your palaces touch me, the city shall be no more!” When a descendant prince, Ajab Singh raised the palace to a height that cast a shadow on Balu Nath’s forbidden retreat, he cursed the town. Balu Nath is said to be buried there to this day in a small samadhi. Local villagers say that anything constructed there collapses and no one has returned, who has spent a night in the fort. The board put up by the Archeological Survey of India that read, “Entering the borders of Bhangarh before sunrise and after sunset is strictly prohibited,” was later modified due to controversial reasons. The ASI has still not taken steps to explore the tehkhana (basement) of the fort. The people even do not speak of the fort due to fear. It has been tagged due to various experiences by many people over years as, “The Most Haunted Place in India.”
