05-06-2007, 03:22 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Unless realigned, canal threatens Ram Setu </b>
Pioneer.com
K Venkataramanan | Chennai
Dredgers founder on Hanuman's bridge
The ambitious Rs 2,427-crore Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project has virtually foundered, having hit what is being described as the legendary 'Ram Setu' - the bridge built by Hanuman's vanar sena to help Lord Ram and his army cross the sea and enter Lanka to rescue Sita.Â
The dredging work for creating the sea channel has considerably slowed down because even the strongest dredgers have failed to cut through an unyielding chain of shoals and rocks. In British era maps this is referred to as Adam's Bridge. But for many Hindus, this is the Ram Setu.
Twice in the last week of January, dredging work suffered serious setback, first when the spud of a cutter suction dredger (CSD-Aquarius) broke, and later, when a tug-crane, brought to retrieve the broken spud, snapped and a part of the crane sank into the sea.
The mishap occurred when the sea close to Adam's Bridge was sought to be dredged. It took several weeks for the Dredging Corporation of India, contracted by the Sethusamudram Corporation Ltd, to repair the dredger.
A campaign has been launched against the SSCP because its current alignment threatens to destroy the Ram Setu in the name of dredging the sea in the Adam's Bridge area. The BJP, the VHP and several fraternal organisations and political parties, like the AIADMK and Janata Party, have joined the protest.
In recent days, the 'Ram Setu Bachao' campaign has echoed in courtrooms and in Parliament. The campaign has entered cyberspace with many websites and blogs being dedicated to the issue.
The UPA Government, especially Union Shipping Minister TR Baalu of the DMK, has refused to entertain any objections to the project. Earlier, questions of economic viability and ecological sustainability were brushed aside. An aggressive Baalu is now dismissive of those insisting that Ram Setu must be saved and that this can done by changing the alignment.
Advocates of Ram Setu's preservation say they are not against the project but opposed to the destruction of the "ancient bridge", which is of "great heritage value" as the world's oldest known man-made structure. Some, like Jayalalithaa, only partially invoke the religious angle, but prefer to highlight the heritage value and archaeological importance of the marine structure.
The project involves dredging the sea to create a lane for large ships between Gulf of Mannar and Palk Bay. It is being claimed that the canal will reduce navigation time by more than a day and save fuel costs for ships moving from India's western seaboard to the east.
The UPA regime's Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs cleared the project on May 19, 2005. The channel alignment proposed by the National Environmental Engineering Institute (NEERI) in its environment impact assessment and techno-economic feasibility reports of mid-2004 was accepted.
Several other alignments proposed since the 19th century were rejected on technical grounds and the one chosen for the project runs through Adam's Bridge, which divides Dhanushkodi/Rameswaram island, runs through Palk Bay, and cuts through Palk Straits to provide a deeper sea passage from Gulf of Mannar to Bay of Bengal.
The channel alignment, as it stands now, runs close to India's maritime boundary with Sri Lanka, with the dredged material to be dumped in Indian territorial waters in Gulf of Mannar.
Ram Setu advocates are demanding that the alignment be modified to ensure that no dredging is required in the Adam's Bridge area. Under the present plan, the channel will be 167 km long in three segments ---- Adam's Bridge (35 km), Palk Bay (78 km) and Palk Straits (54 km). The dredge quantity has been estimated at 82.5 million cubic metres. Of this, Adam's Bridge accounts for 48 million cubic metres.
A Hindu religious leader, Swami Omkarananda of Chidbhavana Ashram at Vedapuri in Theni district of Tamil Nadu, has gone to court with a plea for a restraining order against the continuation of dredging in the Adam's Bridge area on the ground that it would destroy the ancient bridge, hurt Hindu sentiments and also amount to a violation of the state's obligation to protect ancient monuments of religious, historical and archaeological importance.
The sentiment was backed by some political support. Former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa and the BJP agreed with the Swami that the heritage value of Ram Setu made it worth preserving. Jayalalithaa is an opponent of the project, having listed environmental, ecological and economic feasibility arguments against the canal in the past.
Ramanathapuram Civil Judge <b>S Mohammed Abu Thahir </b>rejected the plaintiff's argument, and he accepted the Government lawyer's submission that a project involving high stakes for the Government and huge investments could not be stalled for his sake. However, he suggested that the Government take heed of the religious leader's claims and have them examined by archaeologists.
Swami Omkarananda had cited satellite pictures published by the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) to substantiate his claim that an ancient bridge, "30 km long, three km wide and 17, 25,000 years old", had existed under the strait dividing India and Sri Lanka. However, opinion is divided as to whether the satellite images merely showed the existence of a series of rock formations, or amounted to a testimony about their age and antiquity.
The Union Government informed Parliament some weeks ago that it did not possess any evidence of any 'bridge' under the sea. There had been no explorations by the marine archaeology department in the Adam's Bridge area, Union Minister Ambika Soni said in a written reply.
While the Ram Setu campaign focusses on the possible hurt to Hindu sentiments by the 'destruction' of the ancient bridge, some campaigners are also invoking expert opinion to bolster their position. For instance, they cite Canadian tsunami expert <b>Tad Murthy to contend that in the event of a tsunami, the proposed channel itself will act as a funnel and direct the tsunami towards the southern Kerala coast.</b>
In the December 2004 tsunami, several coastal areas of Tamil Nadu and Kerala were unaffected, mainly because of Sri Lanka acting as a buffer, but the proposed sea channel may rob southern Kerala of this protection. This may further affect the huge deposits of thorium available in Kerala, they say, and adversely impact on India's ambitious plans to go in for thorium-based nuclear reactors. Further, a tsunami may disturb the dredged material stored deep inside the sea and push it back into the channel.
Swami Dayananda Saraswati, citing geologists, argues that the shoals that form the Ram Setu are not a set of natural ridges arising out of the sea. Rather, their structure suggests that they are 'man-made'.
Meanwhile, Jayalalithaa and the BJP's Tamil Nadu unit president L Ganesan have accused <b>Baalu of trying to tamper with 'evidence' about Ram Setu. They allege that Baalu had made a quiet visit to the famous Saraswati Mahal Library in Thanjavur and sought documents that "prove there was a bridge between Dhanushkodi and Thalaimannar in Sri Lanka".</b>
The reference is to 17th and 18th century maps made by British cartographers in which the sandbars or shoals were referred to as Rama's Bridge. However, the British later started referring to the area as Adam's Bridge, apparently after an English official.
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Pioneer.com
K Venkataramanan | Chennai
Dredgers founder on Hanuman's bridge
The ambitious Rs 2,427-crore Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project has virtually foundered, having hit what is being described as the legendary 'Ram Setu' - the bridge built by Hanuman's vanar sena to help Lord Ram and his army cross the sea and enter Lanka to rescue Sita.Â
The dredging work for creating the sea channel has considerably slowed down because even the strongest dredgers have failed to cut through an unyielding chain of shoals and rocks. In British era maps this is referred to as Adam's Bridge. But for many Hindus, this is the Ram Setu.
Twice in the last week of January, dredging work suffered serious setback, first when the spud of a cutter suction dredger (CSD-Aquarius) broke, and later, when a tug-crane, brought to retrieve the broken spud, snapped and a part of the crane sank into the sea.
The mishap occurred when the sea close to Adam's Bridge was sought to be dredged. It took several weeks for the Dredging Corporation of India, contracted by the Sethusamudram Corporation Ltd, to repair the dredger.
A campaign has been launched against the SSCP because its current alignment threatens to destroy the Ram Setu in the name of dredging the sea in the Adam's Bridge area. The BJP, the VHP and several fraternal organisations and political parties, like the AIADMK and Janata Party, have joined the protest.
In recent days, the 'Ram Setu Bachao' campaign has echoed in courtrooms and in Parliament. The campaign has entered cyberspace with many websites and blogs being dedicated to the issue.
The UPA Government, especially Union Shipping Minister TR Baalu of the DMK, has refused to entertain any objections to the project. Earlier, questions of economic viability and ecological sustainability were brushed aside. An aggressive Baalu is now dismissive of those insisting that Ram Setu must be saved and that this can done by changing the alignment.
Advocates of Ram Setu's preservation say they are not against the project but opposed to the destruction of the "ancient bridge", which is of "great heritage value" as the world's oldest known man-made structure. Some, like Jayalalithaa, only partially invoke the religious angle, but prefer to highlight the heritage value and archaeological importance of the marine structure.
The project involves dredging the sea to create a lane for large ships between Gulf of Mannar and Palk Bay. It is being claimed that the canal will reduce navigation time by more than a day and save fuel costs for ships moving from India's western seaboard to the east.
The UPA regime's Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs cleared the project on May 19, 2005. The channel alignment proposed by the National Environmental Engineering Institute (NEERI) in its environment impact assessment and techno-economic feasibility reports of mid-2004 was accepted.
Several other alignments proposed since the 19th century were rejected on technical grounds and the one chosen for the project runs through Adam's Bridge, which divides Dhanushkodi/Rameswaram island, runs through Palk Bay, and cuts through Palk Straits to provide a deeper sea passage from Gulf of Mannar to Bay of Bengal.
The channel alignment, as it stands now, runs close to India's maritime boundary with Sri Lanka, with the dredged material to be dumped in Indian territorial waters in Gulf of Mannar.
Ram Setu advocates are demanding that the alignment be modified to ensure that no dredging is required in the Adam's Bridge area. Under the present plan, the channel will be 167 km long in three segments ---- Adam's Bridge (35 km), Palk Bay (78 km) and Palk Straits (54 km). The dredge quantity has been estimated at 82.5 million cubic metres. Of this, Adam's Bridge accounts for 48 million cubic metres.
A Hindu religious leader, Swami Omkarananda of Chidbhavana Ashram at Vedapuri in Theni district of Tamil Nadu, has gone to court with a plea for a restraining order against the continuation of dredging in the Adam's Bridge area on the ground that it would destroy the ancient bridge, hurt Hindu sentiments and also amount to a violation of the state's obligation to protect ancient monuments of religious, historical and archaeological importance.
The sentiment was backed by some political support. Former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa and the BJP agreed with the Swami that the heritage value of Ram Setu made it worth preserving. Jayalalithaa is an opponent of the project, having listed environmental, ecological and economic feasibility arguments against the canal in the past.
Ramanathapuram Civil Judge <b>S Mohammed Abu Thahir </b>rejected the plaintiff's argument, and he accepted the Government lawyer's submission that a project involving high stakes for the Government and huge investments could not be stalled for his sake. However, he suggested that the Government take heed of the religious leader's claims and have them examined by archaeologists.
Swami Omkarananda had cited satellite pictures published by the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) to substantiate his claim that an ancient bridge, "30 km long, three km wide and 17, 25,000 years old", had existed under the strait dividing India and Sri Lanka. However, opinion is divided as to whether the satellite images merely showed the existence of a series of rock formations, or amounted to a testimony about their age and antiquity.
The Union Government informed Parliament some weeks ago that it did not possess any evidence of any 'bridge' under the sea. There had been no explorations by the marine archaeology department in the Adam's Bridge area, Union Minister Ambika Soni said in a written reply.
While the Ram Setu campaign focusses on the possible hurt to Hindu sentiments by the 'destruction' of the ancient bridge, some campaigners are also invoking expert opinion to bolster their position. For instance, they cite Canadian tsunami expert <b>Tad Murthy to contend that in the event of a tsunami, the proposed channel itself will act as a funnel and direct the tsunami towards the southern Kerala coast.</b>
In the December 2004 tsunami, several coastal areas of Tamil Nadu and Kerala were unaffected, mainly because of Sri Lanka acting as a buffer, but the proposed sea channel may rob southern Kerala of this protection. This may further affect the huge deposits of thorium available in Kerala, they say, and adversely impact on India's ambitious plans to go in for thorium-based nuclear reactors. Further, a tsunami may disturb the dredged material stored deep inside the sea and push it back into the channel.
Swami Dayananda Saraswati, citing geologists, argues that the shoals that form the Ram Setu are not a set of natural ridges arising out of the sea. Rather, their structure suggests that they are 'man-made'.
Meanwhile, Jayalalithaa and the BJP's Tamil Nadu unit president L Ganesan have accused <b>Baalu of trying to tamper with 'evidence' about Ram Setu. They allege that Baalu had made a quiet visit to the famous Saraswati Mahal Library in Thanjavur and sought documents that "prove there was a bridge between Dhanushkodi and Thalaimannar in Sri Lanka".</b>
The reference is to 17th and 18th century maps made by British cartographers in which the sandbars or shoals were referred to as Rama's Bridge. However, the British later started referring to the area as Adam's Bridge, apparently after an English official.
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