TNI Bureau: Rajya Sabha MP Kartikeya Sharma raised a pertinent question in the Parliament whether the government was making any efforts to conduct a scientific assessment of India’s past. He asked this question with respect to the Sethusamudram Project, which entails excavating an 83-km section to permit navigation through the chain of islands between India and Sri Lanka, a.k.a Ram Setu or Adam’s Bridge.
What is Ram Setu?
We are apprehensive of the history of the bridge between India and our neighboring country Sri Lanka called Ram Setu, also known as Adam’s Bridge. This 48 km (30 mi) long bridge connects the Gulf of Mannar (southwest) to the Palk Strait (northeast). The channel was actually passable on foot until the 15th century, when storms deepened it. Recently questions were asked about this historical bridge in the Parliament.
Did Jitendra Singh deny the existence of the bridge?
Anil Desai, a member of parliament, and Kartikeya Sharma, exchanged a verbal question in the legislature about the government’s efforts to conduct a scientific analysis of India’s past. Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh responded, “I am glad to share with him that the department of space is actually engaged in this…. As far as the question that was asked by him here concerning the Ram Setu, we have certain limitations in discovering that because the history dates back to more than 18,000 years and if you go by history, that bridge was about 56km long,”.
He added, “So, what I am trying to say in short is that it is difficult to pinpoint the exact structure that existed there, but there is some kind of an indication, direct or indirect, that those structures have existed.”
Further projects involving exploration of Ram setu
The National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), Goa, has finished the geographical survey of Ram Setu as part of an underwater exploration project. The proposal by NIO was approved in 2020 by the Central Advisory Board on Archaeology, an organisation under the Archaeological Survey of India. Archaeological antiquities, radiometric and thermoluminescence dating for geological timescales, and other supporting environmental data will all be the foundation of the study.