Petition to save Ram Sethu (Adam's bridge)

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Please sign on the petition to save Ram Sethuby visiting at:

http://newsanalysisindia.com/ramsethu.htm

 

Petition to save Ram Sethu (Adam's bridge)

 

We are extremely concerned about the continuing reports in the media

related to the determination of Indian government especially

Ministers of Shipping Mr. Balu and Ambika Soni of Cultural Ministry

to the destruction of Ram Sethu (Adam's Bridge) by continuing the

sethusamudram project. The project is fine, but the present route

is not, as it involves destruction of the Adam's bridge (Ram Sethu).

 

The existence of Ram Sethu (Adam's Bridge) has been proved by the

satellite pictures of NASA. Details may be seen and read at:

http://history.nasa.gov/SP-168/section3b.htm

 

Foreigners and Indians alike have described it as Rama's bridge

since ancient times in their maps and travelogues. The first time

someone called it Adam's Bridge was in 1804 by James Rennell, the

first surveyor general of the East India Company. Even if the

Government of India prefers to use the name Adam's Bridge, it simply

proves that not only Hindus but Muslims and Christians too have a

reverence for the bridge it is going to destroy.

 

The Encyclopedia Britannica describes the bridge thus, 'Adam's

Bridge also called Rama's Bridge, chain of shoals, between the

islands of Mannar, near northwestern Sri Lanka, and Rameswaram, off

the southeastern coast of India.' Read at:

http://www.britannicaindia.com/duk_det_inside.asp?art_id=28

 

The Ram Setu or Adam's Bridge connects India's Rameshwaram to Sri

Lanka's Talaimannar. A movement has begun to safeguard it at the

shores of Rameshwaram on April 18. Two former judges of the Supreme

Court, Justice K T Thomas and Justice V R Krishna Iyer, none of them

close to any political party, have warned the government against

destroying the Ram Setu.

 

Ramasethu acted as 'barrier' during tsunami: ADB expert

 

A former Asian Development Bank expert has urged for preserving the

legendary 'Rama Sethu' bridge of 'Ramayana' times now immersed under

sea waters, saying it had protected the entire South and South-West

of Nagapattinam when the Tsunami struck the coastlines of several

countries in the Indian Ocean.

 

After the Tsunami struck the Indian coasts in December 2004, shoal

accumulations of the Rama Sethu acted as a barrier in protecting the

coastline on the South and South-West of Nagapattinam.

 

The devastating high tides caused by the displacement of tectonic

events near Banda Aceh in Indonesia circled the entire Sri Lankan

Island and partially moved to Kerala and towards the Rama bridge.

 

''If the bridge is breached for Sethusamudram, the waters would

directly gush into the entire peninsular region beyond Dhanushkodi

and the coastline in Kerala to Konkan regions in Karnataka-Goa and

Maharashtra and the devastation would be incalculable,'' he said.

 

Even Geological Survey of India in its logo, which describes India

in this line etched at the bottom of its insignia -- Aasetu

Himachal, meaning India is spread between the Bridge and the

Himalayas.

 

Millions of families of fishermen, Hindus, Muslims and Christians

who eke out a living by the sea have formed a protest group under

the banner Tamil Nadu Fishermen Sangh headed by Shri Kuppu Ram.

 

This is comparable to a recent news story from the USA which we

highlighted here in HHR

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article15

05736.ece

where the American courts disallowed the use of sewage for

artificial snow on a sacred mountain used as a place of worship and

pilgrimage by the Native American people.

 

Why has the council rejected the alternative plans put forward by

the various organisations?

 

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with United Progressive Alliance

Chairperson Sonia Gandhi inaugurated the Sethusamudram project on

July 2, 2005. The present route of the project essentially requires

the destruction of the Ram Setu (Adam's bridge) is intentionally

being adopted, while other options, closer to Dhanushkodi, which did

not touch the Ram Setu were ignored?

 

And why is the Indian government hesitating in consulting the issue

related to the safety of Ram Sethu (Adam's bridge) with the

organizations want to save Ram Sethu (Adam's bridge), scientists and

NASA?

 

We of the following signatures look forward to hearing from you or

saving the world heritage Ram Sethu *Adam's bridge) – and, we hope,

that Indian government will adopt a more responsible attitude to its

own country heritage, as well as world heritage.

 

JAI SIA RAM