Ram Sethu - man made or natural ?

The politics of India sometime moves along with religious lines.

Seemingly a bridge (or a chain of islands) between India and Ceylone ( Sri Lanka) which joins these two countries under the sea is a bone of contention between political parties like Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), Congress and DMK. Between religious forces and secular forces.

BJP is know for Hindutva ideology which says India is for Hindus only and others are second class. Congress takes pride in its secular credentials and DMK and it leader M. Karunanidhi are very well known for theirs anti-hindu-scripture stance. BJP and Congress are national level political parties and DMK is a regional level party; its influence is limited to the state of Tamilnadu.

The bridge, at the southern tip of India, is known as Ram Sethu or Adam’s bridge.

The sea along the bridge is shallow and it makes it difficult for ships to cross this bridge. Only small boats can cross this structure. There is project known as Sethusamandrum which is for dredging the sea and make it deeper by breaking this bridge. This is supposed to make short the travel time of ships when going from east to west or vice versa. Otherwise the ships have to take a longer route going via the southern end of Sri Lanka. This deepening of sea will result in saving of fuel and man days.

However , Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy approached Supreme Court Of India urging it to stop the destruction of bridge or shoals . The reason for this was that this tombolo or bridge (or a chain of islands ) according to popular religious belief was made by armies of Lord Ram of Ayodhya to attack Lanka to get back his wife Sita from the clutches of Ravana. Ravana was a demon king who had kidnapped Sita to avenge the insult done to his sister Superanakha at the hands of Lakshman. Lakshmana was the younger brother of Lord Ram who cut off the nose of Superanakha when the latter expressed her love for Lakshmana. This story is given in Ramayana which is a Hindu religious epic. The mainstream historians consider this epic to be a part of Hindu mythology since so far no evidence of such a ruler or event had been discovered. However the fringe historians with a religious faith considers it to be a true story and a part of Hindu history. They consider Lord Ram to be historical figure where no evidence exists in favor of such a view.

Now this bridge built according to religious belief of Hindus by Lord Ram , the sixth Avtar of Lord Vishnu has caused turbulence in India and it has become national and political issue.

But whether this bridge is really man made. This bridge seems to be a hydromechanical structure of Coral and sand. Carbonated mounds are found along with marine sand. Sand is supposed to be on the top most layer then there are corals then again sand and below them are the hard rocks. Now this sand in between corals and hard rock seems to have created some confusion. According Dr. Badrinaryan , the noted geologist, the former director of Geological Survey of India and former coordinator of the survey division of the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), Ministry of Earth Science, in Chennai (NIOT), this type of formation is possible only when the boulders have been brought from some where else and planted on the sand because corals grow only on hard rocks. Thus according to him the structure is man made. Please see his interview here .

Further it coincides with the time when the war of Lord Ram with Lanka king Ravana is supposed to have taken place.

Regarding the layered structure of this tombolo ( a strip joining two land mass divided by sea) it may be stated that it is not necessary to have a thick impenetrable core for a reef or corals. The corals do have some porosity. Where the porous part is filled up by the carbonated materials then we have a compact structure. Otherwise we have a porous core though a little bit. When this porous core is eroded due to waves and accumulation of marine sand then a more porous structure is born. As a result caves in coral reefs are not unknown. Further variation of these porous cores are the development of large voids in them due to hydromechanical forces . The carbonated debris erode and give way to voids. Sometime a structure is created which is known as pillar and roof structure of reef or corals.

So first there is hard rock and then corals grew over it. These rocks and coral growth is near to a land mass. The corals die and a thick carbonated structure is created over the rocks. Then hydromechanical forces erode the lower part of the carbonate stones and wash away the carbonated debris. This creates voids large enough to make a pillar and roof structure. Then strong sea waves bring the sand and deposit it in the void and fill it up completely. Then under hydromechnical pressure the carbonated pillars break down and mix with the sand. It happens slowly and the top most carbonate stones do not have time to come down. It rests on the pillars till the sand fully takes the place of pillars after they turn into debris. After sometime the sand is deposited on the top of carbonated stones or boulders. Then a team under our Dr. Badrinarayan goes to drill the structure and finds the layered structure with marine sand in between hard rock and corals and proclaims, unscientifically, that the bridge is a man made structure. Whereas it is totally due to natural forces and a structure of sand, shoals, carbonated boulders and hard rock. It is completely nature made with no artificial hand in it.

Then one more thing is that the corals are found on the side of Gulf of Mannar to the west side of Sethu and not on the side of Palk strait to the east of Sethu. It is so because the waves in Gulf of Mannar are calm and quiet and corals grow only in peaceful sea. The sea in Palk Strait is rough and tough so the corals do not grow there because they can not survive there.

The above is also in line with the natural forces and not the artificial forces. If the bridge or tombolo was man made then the coral or carbonate boulders should have been on both the side not only one natural side. They lie on natural side which is proof of their natural build up.

But Dr. Badrinarayan ignores all this and claims it to be a man made structure. This blows up the religious feeling of the people. Or the elites of Hindus and their followers want to claim it as an astonishing engineering feat of their forefathers where there is none.

Then it was all started by photograph taken by NASA which clearly show a tombolo between India and Sri Lanka. NASA has already said that it is not possible to say whether this was man made or natural. However it prefers to call it a tombolo which is joining strip between two land masses divided by sea.

Thus it can safely be concluded that Adam’s bridge is natural structure and not man made.

But this rational reasoning is not enough to calm the religious voices of unreason and a resultant chaos in India both in political and religious terms. Truly the Indians do not have the scientific temper.