Everything about The Palk Strait totally explained
The
Palk Strait is a
strait that lies between the
Tamil Nadu state of
India and the
island nation of
Sri Lanka. It connects the
Bay of Bengal to the northeast with the
Gulf of Mannar to the south. The strait is 40 to 85 miles (64-137 km) wide. Several rivers flow into it, including the
Vaigai River of Tamil Nadu. The strait is named after
Robert Palk, who was a governor of
Madras Presidency (1755-1763) during the
British Raj period.
It is studded at its southern end with a
chain of low islands and
reef shoals that are collectively called
Adam's Bridge (or the original name
Rama's Bridge). This chain extends between
Dhanushkodi on
Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu and
Talaimannar in
Mannar in Sri Lanka. The island of Rameswaram is linked to the Indian mainland by the
Pamban Bridge.
The shallow waters and reefs of the strait make it difficult for large ships to pass through, although fishing boats and small craft carrying coastal trade have navigated the strait for centuries. Large ships must travel around Sri Lanka. Construction of a shipping canal through the strait was first proposed to the British government of India in 1860, and a number of commissions have studied the proposal up to the present day. The most recent study of the
Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project, as it's now called, was an
environmental impact assessment and a
technical feasibility study commissioned by the Tamil Nadu government in
2004.
Like the
English Channel, the Palk Strait has been taken up as a challenge by many
long-distance swimmers.
The
Indian epic poem Ramayana, written thousands of years ago in
Sanskrit and an important
Hindu text, recounts how
Rama, with the help of an army of
vanaras, built a bridge of stones across the sea to
Lanka to rescue his wife
Sita from the
Asura king
Ravana. The
Ram Karmabhumi movement, encouraged by a
NASA satellite photograph which they say proves that remnants of this bridge still exist, was formed to prevent the shipping canal from being built.
The name Adam's Bridge is a later play than
Rama's bridge and derives from the story that
South India or Sri Lanka was the site of the biblical earthly
paradise, and that Adam's Bridge was created when Adam was expelled from paradise.
Further Information
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