Centre Sanctions Underwater Research Into Ram Setu Origins
The Central Advisory Board on Archaeology approved the proposal for the underwater exploration of the limestone shoals last month, project to begin soon
| 25 Jan 2021 8:47 AM GMT
NEW DELHI: The government has given approval to an underwater research project to ascertain the origins of the Ram Setu.
Ram Setu is a 48-kilometer-long chain of limestone sandbars which start from the Dhanushkodi tip of Pamban Island, off the south-eastern coast of Tamil Nadu, India, and end at Mannar Island, off the north-western coast of Sri Lanka.
Ram Setu is also known as Rama s Bridge or Adam s Bridge or Nala Setu. Pamban Island is also known as Rameswaram Island.
Centre approves underwater study to ascertain origin of Ram Setu
India
Published: Monday, January 25, 2021, 11:59 [IST]
New Delhi, Jan 25: The Centre has approved an underwater research project to determine how and when the Ram Setu was formed.
The study, which got approved last month, will be conducted by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and National Institute of Oceanography Goa.
File Photo of Ram Setu
The study will also try to find out existence of any submerged habitations around Ram Setu.
Talking about the aim of the exploration, Union Minister of State for Tourism and Culture, Prahlad Singh Patel, said, The world should get to know about the Ram Setu through evidence based on scientific research.
Updated Jan 25, 2021 | 07:31 IST
The Central Advisory Board on Archaeology, a body under the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), approved the proposal for the underwater exploration project last month. Ram Setu | Photo Credit: PTI
Key Highlights
It will ascertain whether there are any submerged habitations around Ram Setu
The research vessels of NIO, Sindhu Sadhana or Sindhu Sankalp, will be used in this project
New Delhi: The government has given its nod to an underwater research project to determine the origins of the Ram Setu, a 48-km-long chain of shoals between India and Sri Lanka.
Ram Setu, also known as Rama s Bridge or Adam’s Bridge or Nala Setu, is a chain of limestone shoals, between Pamban Island, also known as Rameswaram Island, off the south-eastern coast of Tamil Nadu, India, and Mannar Island, off the north-western coast of Sri Lanka.
Noctiluca scintillans – the Sea Sparkle That Threatens the Arabian Sea 21/01/2021
Naresh M. Gohil out on his fishing boat. Photo: Malavika Vyawahare/Mongabay
On February 26, 2003, a group of scientists set out to sea from Goa in the Arabian Sea, India, on a routine mission. They called it “sea truthing,” verifying data gathered by satellites eyeing the earth from hundreds of kilometers above. What the team encountered there, in the middle of the Arabian Sea, was far from routine. About 970 kilometers northwest of Mumbai on India’s western coast, they found themselves sailing on a green swirl that spread out as far as the eye could see. At night, the waters glowed neon blue.
Two recent news stories about Ram from two extremes of India, Ayodhya and Ram Setu, would have caught one’s attention. Where Ayodhya is concerned, the Pandora’s box had actually been opened long ago, in December 1949, when KKK Nair, the not-so-secular district magistrate of Faizabad, facilitated the sudden ‘appearance’ of Ram-Sita images inside Babri Masjid.
This cauldron was kept boiling on medium heat and the several non-communal governments that ruled India and Uttar Pradesh for four decades forgot to turn off the knob. This furnace was, however, stoked quite vigorously after the new BJP (born 1980) achieved a pathetic score of just two seats in the 1984 elections. The Sangh Parivar desperately scoured for an effective weapon when Bhagwan Ram appeared as a godsend. The fact that his exact janmabhoomi had been destroyed and occupied by a mosque was just the perfect agenda for the Sangh.