Living Planet Foundation

"To waste, to destroy our natural resources, to skin and exhaust the land instead of using it so as to increase its usefulness, will result in undermining in the days of our children the very prosperity which we ought by right to hand down to them amplified and developed".

US President Theodore Roosevelt
Seventh Annual Message
3rd December 1907

In 2005 the Government of India approved a multi-million dollar Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project (SSCP) that aims to create a ship channel across the Palk Strait. The plan is to dredge the shallow ocean floor to create enough leeway allowing ships to pass through the channel instead of having to go around the island of Sri Lanka. It is expected to save nearly 30 hours' shipping time by cutting over 400 km off the voyage.
		Hindus across the world are opposing the SCCP, which they say will damage Ram Sethu. Hindus consider Ram Sethu to be a sacred monument of their faith and feel that any damage done to it would be sacrilegious and offensive to their religious sentiments. Several Hindu groups in India and across the globe are opposing the SSCP and have initiated movements to save Ram Sethu. Hindu groups have filed petitions in various courts and the matter has reached the Supreme Court of India. Under the order of the court, the SSCP has been put on a temporary hold. The Indian government is keen to dig the canal and has said there is no
Proposed Ship Channel.
scientific evidence to prove the existence of Ram Sethu. The Hindus feel insulted by the Government's response and have responded by staging demonstrations and mass rallies against the government. As a result of huge opposition to the SSCP, the issue of Ram Sethu is already higher on the media and political agendas in India. The Government has now decided to do a re-think on the SSCP and has given serious consideration to the Supreme Court suggestion of an alternative alignment. India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has constituted a six-member experts committee to look at an alternative alignment. This committee, which will examine the possibility of a canal through Rameswaram Island, will also study its impact on culture, environment and law and order. The committee is expected to submit its findings in a few months. Adam's Bridge (Ram Sethu) Background Adam's Bridge also known as Ram Sethu is a chain of limestone shoals, which appear during low tide as a narrow ridge of sand and rocks, mostly dry, that connects Rameshwaram in Southeastern India to Talaimannar in Sri Lanka. At high tide it is covered by c.4 ft (1.2 m) of water. Hindus believe that Ram Sethu, which is mostly submerged, was built thousands of years ago, during the time of Lord Rama. According to Hindu sacred scriptures Valmiki and Tulsi Ramayana which are India's most well known spiritual texts depicting the life of lord Rama, the 30km bridge was built by Lord Ram on a journey from India to Lanka where he fought an evil tyrant called Ravana to establish the principles of justice and freedom. Its construction is elaborately described in the Ramayana. It is also mentioned in other scriptures - the Mahabharata, Kalidasa's Raghuvamsham, Skanda Purana, Vishnu Purana, Agni Purana and Brahma Purana.
		Many historical inscriptions, coins, ancient travel guides, old dictionary references and ancient religious maps indicate that Hindus consider this structure sacred. Various travel guides, books, dictionary prepared during the 18th and 19th centuries, including translations of Marco Polo's account of his travels, refer to this Bridge as Setubund Rameswara or Ramar Bridge. Adam's Bridge was the name given to Ram Sethu by a British cartographer in 1804.
Temple records suggest that Ram Sethu was above sea level and passable on foot until a cyclone in 1480 AD broke some of the connceting rocks. Gradual shift in sea level encroached upon the remaining structure and ultimately buried the bridge. Although most of structure is underwater today, the Hindus revere the remnants of the bridge, as the sacred Ram Sethu and till today continue the centuries old belief of offering worship at the site. This belief was further corroborated in 2002 when satellite images released by NASA showed a chain of limestone shoals resembling a bridge in the Gulf of Mannar - between India and Sri Lanka. Hindus believe that the satellite images have confirmed what their scriptures had conveyed since time immemorial. Another report by a retired Director of the Geological Survey of India to the Department of Earth Science stating that the "shoal stones placement make out that they were "deliberately placed there" proving that Ram Sethu was manmade" further strengthened the Hindu belief that the underwater structure was not a natural formation but it was the Ram Sethu of Ramayana. The importance of Adam's Bridge is not confined to the Hindus alone. It is also considered sacred in the Sri Lankan tradition. Sri Lankans believe that the Adam's bridge links the mythical, Adams Peak, the scared mountain of Sri Lanka, where God placed Adam on earth to the mainland of India.