Castle Rock is a village in the Uttara Kannada district of the

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

n state of

Karnataka Karnataka ( ) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed as Mysore State on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, States Re ...

. The village is located in the Western Ghats on the state's border with Goa - at an elevation of 621 m (2,040 ft). Located in a heavily forested area, Castle Rock's vegetation is moist

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the equator, where the sun may shine directly overhead. This contrasts with the temperate or polar regions of Earth, where the Sun can never be directly overhead. This is because of Earth's ax ...

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and botany, the term deciduous () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed Leaf, leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...

Manganese Manganese is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Mn and atomic number 25. It is a hard, brittle, silvery metal, often found in minerals in combination with iron. Manganese was first isolated in the 1770s. It is a transition m ...

mines form the main economy of the region. The village lies within the Dandeli Tiger Reserve.

History

For many years, the village marked international border between Portuguese-held Goa and British-held India. Transit between Portuguese India's Goa territory and

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

(till Indian independence) and later between Portuguese India's Goa territory and

till Annexation of Goa, was treated similar to international travel. All the formalities of international travel including customs checks and verification of travel documents were carried out at Castle Rock. A metre gauge railway line from Marmagao railway station to Castle Rock railway station was owned and operated by a British company named West of India Portuguese Railway (WIPR) which despite its name was a British company and it connected with the line in

from Londa. A metre gauge railway line used to connect the Goan towns of Vasco and Margao with the rest of India and was the only rail link in the state till the

Konkan Railway The Konkan Railway (abbreviated KR) is one of the 19 railway zones in India with its headquarters at CBD Belapur in Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. The Konkan Railway line from Roha to Thokur is operated and maintained by Konkan Railway co ...

started services in the early 1990s. In the early 1990s, the

Indian Railways Indian Railways is a state-owned enterprise that is organised as a departmental undertaking of the Ministry of Railways (India), Ministry of Railways of the Government of India and operates India's national railway system. , it manages the fou ...

converted the metre gauge line to broad gauge, thus connecting the old rail network with the rest of India. Metre gauge tracks can still be seen at the Castle Rock railway station.

Transport

The terminus of the line today is Vasco da Gama railway station. This station marks the beginning of the Braganza Ghats from the

side. The nearby Dudhsagar Falls is one of the main tourist attractions of Goa. Mining is now banned and the area has been named Dandeli-Anshi Tiger Reserve.

Castle Rock Forest Range

Castle Rock forest range office is within walking distance from the Castle Rock railway station. Castle Rock range is part of the Dandeli Wild Life Sanctuary, also known as Dandeli-Anshi Tiger Reserve.

External links

{{Commons category

References

Villages in Uttara Kannada district