India, April 8 -- As a child, Deepak Vaidya had heard tales of an abandoned fort on a sea-facing hillock in Chiplun, in coastal Maharashtra, and went in search of this this forgotten wonder. What he saw as an eight-year-old took his breath away. Surrounded by dense jungle and with no proper road, he walked right up to the fort and was transfixed by its deep trench, crumbling turrets and a step-well that magically still held water.

A resident of Anjanvel village, which holds the haunting remains of this Maratha fort, Vaidya returned as a young man, hoping to rekindle the feeling he had experienced as a child. What he saw took his breath away, once more. This time, he was confronted by a sign that read, 'Simran Mango Farm'.

Vaidya, then a...