The Hindu : Front Page : Protect Ramar Sethu as monument: Jayalalithaa

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Friday, Sep 14, 2007
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Protect Ramar Sethu as monument: Jayalalithaa

Legal Correspondent

Unique curvature and composition show it is man made: petition

New Delhi: Even as the Supreme Court is to hear a batch of petitions on the Sethusamudram project on Friday, All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam general secretary Jayalalithaa has moved the court for a declaration that Adam’s Bridge/Ramar Sethu is a national monument and to restrain the Centre and other authorities from destroying it while executing the project.

Acting on an application from Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy, the court on August 31 restrained the authorities from causing any damage to Ramar Sethu. While the Centre, in its reply, maintained that Ramar Sethu was not a man-made bridge, the Archaeological Survey of India said there was no evidence to prove the existence of Rama or other characters or the occurrences and events depicted in the Ramayana.

In her petition, Ms. Jayalalithaa said Ramar Sethu, by reason of its antiquity and unique features, was to be treated as a world heritage site. The destruction of or damage to the structure, as envisaged in the project, was fraught with serious ecological, environmental, climatic and security concerns.

She said the significance of Ramar Sethu could well be appreciated from the fact that even the Survey of India adopted a logo in 1767 “which reads ‘AaSetuHimachalam’ meaning thereby that India is spread between Ramar Bridge and the Himalayas.”

Ms. Jayalalithaa said, “One source notes that Ramancoil has been shown on a 1747 map made in the Netherlands, called the Malabar Bowen Map of the Netherlands, and that the 1788 edition of the map called Map of Hindoostan or the Mughal Empire, which is available in Saraswati Mahal Library, Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, makes reference to the bridge.”

She said, “The bridge’s unique curvature and composition by age reveals that it is man made and that archaeological studies revealed that first signs of human inhabitants in Sri Lanka date back to the primitive age of about 17,50,000 years and the bridge’s age is also almost equivalent.”

The Sethu project ought to be implemented by adopting available alternative routes. She said that in 2005, she as Chief Minister voiced her concern at the damage to the ecologically sensitive zone and the effect of the project on the livelihood of fishermen. She prayed for protecting the Ramar Sethu as a national monument.

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