Kuldhara

Kuldhara is a Paliwal village in Jaisalmer, long abandoned, with a reputation as a haunted place. One story says the departing villagers cursed Kuldhara to stay empty; a survey of the site suggests its water supply failed.

A story reported by India Today in 2015 says the villagers cursed Kuldhara as they left, so that no one could live there again, and that strange happenings drove away anyone who later tried to settle, leaving the village empty.

Syed Ali Nadeem Rezavi, who surveyed the site in the 1990s, suggested that a failing groundwater supply may explain the village's decline. When the township flourished in the 17th and 18th centuries it had five or more wells, a large baoli and two deep wells, and most had run dry by 1815. As the water table fell and irrigation failed, he wrote, the soil yielded less and less.

Wikipedia says the village slowly became known as haunted and began drawing tourists, and that local residents doubt the ghost stories and spread them to attract visitors. Early in the 2010s Gaurav Tiwari of the Indian Paranormal Society claimed paranormal activity there: an 18-member team from the society and 12 others stayed a night in the village and reported moving shadows, voices and talking spirits.

The site has also drawn film crews and tourism plans. The Times of India reported in 2011 that the archaeological department fined a film producer Rs 1 lakh, citing damage to Kuldhara's original structures, and asked for a Rs 3 lakh deposit toward restoring them. India Today reported in 2015 on plans to develop the village and open it to tourists, and the Times of India reported in 2016 that tented overnight stays were planned.