People's Democracy

Ram Sethu And Sethusamudram Project

Communal agenda of BJP and Sangh Parivar

Vandana

DUSTED out of the attic, 144 year old project first envisaged by Commander A D Taylor of the Indian Marine in 1860, Sethusamudram Ship canal project (SSCP) has evoked mixed reaction. Seen as an opportunity for development by attracting cargo vessels to ports in the Eastern Coast, particularly Tuticorin port, the project is viewed by some as long over due. Others citing various environmental issues as well as that the project would become uneconomical due to large scale sedimentation witnessed in this region of ocean consider it as uneconomical. In the midst of the debate a new twist has been smuggled in by the BJP and the Sangh Parivar to communalise the issue. Alleging that the move for dismantling of the Ram Setu, a natural shoals in the region called Adams Bridge, ‘is the conspiracy of Congress, the Left and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’, Mr Ashok Singal, president of VHP issued a threat of agitations by VHP and BJP if the project is not stopped forth with.

In fact the project was claimed to be the handy work of almost all the parties in TN. AIADMKof Ms J Jayalalitha, MDMK of Shri V Gopalasamy, DMK of Shri M Karunanidhi each claimed credit for bringing the project to TN and ushering in development. Until recently even BJP too was in the bandwagon saying that it was during the last NDA regime that the project was given a go ahead.

Pegged at about Rs.2,250 crores cost, the Sethusamudram Ship Canal Project (SSCP) aims at dredging the shallow ocean and crating an artificial canal that could provide passage to draft ships and cargo containers. SSCP will link the Gulf of Mannar and Palk Bay in the southeastern coast of India. The total length of SSCP would be about 260 km, covering Palk Bay, Adam’s bridge and Gulf of Mannar regions. The project envisages dredging a width of 300 meters of this stretch to provide a continuous navigable route cut through Adam’s Bridge, a natural chain of shoals to avoid circumnavigating Sri Lanka. The canal will have an average depth of 12 metres enabling 10,000 to 12,000 GRT (gross registered ton) vessels to pass through. At present for the ships to port at Tuticorin, they have to go around Sri Lanka cruising additional 360 miles and wasting about 36 hrs.

Right from the day the project was inaugurated it has witnessed hostility from various quarters. Opposition ranged from much anticipated ‘no development’ environmentalists, inevitable unhealthy political opposition for the sake of stealing the thunder out of the ruling party and dispassionate scientific scepticism that cautioned about the potential mass sedimentation in the region and fragile eco-system in the region. While it is important to address the genuine concerns and find a balanced development path that meets the need of short term immediate needs of the people of the locality as well as long term sustainability, frivolous opposition is injurious to development and rational public debates on developmental policy.

BJP and the Sangh parivar have once again come off its true colours. The aim is not to engage in rational debate on policy. The threat of agitation, sans stoppage of the SSCP, is not based on rational scientific studies or concerns arising out of it. Rather, the opposition stems from communal agenda, ‘the SSCP would disturb and destroy the bridge built by Lord Ram, mythical Ram Sethu of Ramayana’ being the sole issue.

To buttress their ludicrous claim they have once again resurrected false and forged story circulated by the Sangh Parivar earlier. Sangh Parivar affiliated news services stated in 1992 that US agency's space borne cameras had discovered the remains of the mythical bridge built by Rama across the Palk Strait. Further it is asserted that the NASA had concluded that the bridge to be man-made from the ‘bridge´s unique curvature and composition by age’. Arguing that the legends as well as archaeological studies reveal that the first signs of human inhabitants in Sri Lanka date back to the primitive age, about 1,750,000 years ago and the bridge´s age is also almost equivalent. As Rama’s rein was to have taken place during tredha yuga (more than 1,700,000 years ago) and the alleged age of the ‘bridge’ match. The SSCP would disturb this ‘historical’ and ‘holy’ structure. This in essence is the claim of Sangh Parivar.

Uncritically citing this news that appeared in the Internet sites sympathetic to Sangh Parivar, PTI had reported the same. As the news was catchy, the media uncritically lapped it. Soon however the media woke-up to the fraud when the matter was verified with NASA. Writing in Hindustan Times on October 17, 2002, its Washington correspondent S Rajagopalan wrote that ‘NASA poured cold water on the claims’ citing NASA official Mark Hess categorically stated that ‘Remote sensing images or photographs from orbit cannot provide direct information about the origin or age of a chain of islands, and certainly cannot determine whether humans were involved in producing any of the patterns seen’. NASA distanced itself from the story and stated that it made no claims whatsoever regarding the age or nature of the shoals in the region.

One wonders why Sangh Parivar had to take recourse to NASA’s images when there are excellent images from Indian satellites? Is it due to their new found love for America for waging unjustified war in the Gulf region claiming it to be a war of civilisations? Using the Survey of India (SOI) topographic map and IRS LISS-III satellite data, changes in coastal and off-shore morphology of the Gulf of Mannar have been studied. Some of the studies indicate that there is a decrease of 0.51m in the sea floor depth all along shelf-region of the Gulf of Mannar between 1975-1999. Seaward migration of shoreline is said to be evident. Further it is postulated that the Gulf of Mannar seafloor has been rising by tectonic movement as indicated by the newly formed spits, swales, beach ridges, mudflat, strandlines and reduction of seafloor depth. The chain of shoals that are popularly called as ‘Adam’s Bridge’ are nothing but such accretion of littoral currents in this region.

When the controversy emerged earlier the age of the Adam’s Bridge shoals was questioned. Talking to the reporter of Indian Express, (published on Feb 3, 2003) Professor S.M. Ramasamy of Centre for Remote Sensing (CRS) of Bharathidasan University, Tiruchi had asserted that the Adam’s bridge over Palk Strait is about 3,500 years and not 1.7 million years as claimed by Sangh Parivar. Further he clarified that the carbon dating of some ancient beaches between Thiruthuraipoondi and Kodiyakarai show the Thiruthuraipoondi beach dates back to 6,000 years and the Kodiyakarai beach to 1,100 years. In other words, the sea was near Thiruthuraipoondi 6,000 years ago and reached Kodiyakarai only around 1,100 years ago. Attributing the formation of the shoals to long shore drifting currents, Ramaswamy explained that consequent dumping of sand in a linear pattern along the current shadow zone between Dhanushkodi and Talaimannar resulted in the ‘bridge’. Hoping that the public memory would be short and no one would recall the denial by NASA to the frivolous canards Sangh Parivar has raised the bogey of affront to Lord Ram and the destruction of Ram Sethu once again. Including J Jayalalitha, chief of AIADMK and mouth pieces of Sangh Parivar like V Sundaram use the same exposed and discredited ‘NASA report’ to prop their farcical arguments.

It is noteworthy that N. Ramanujam, Head, Post Graduate Department of Geology and Research Centre, V.O. Chidambaram College assailed the Sangh Parivar’s fantastic claim and stated that ‘Adam's Bridge is not a man made structure rather it's a geological phenomenon’ (reported in The Hindu, March 17, 2007). Explaining that the Adam's Bridge is only a chain of shoals between the Palk Strait and the Gulf of Mannar, created by sedimentation owing to long shore currents, Ramanujam traced the geological history of the Palk Strait and the Gulf of Mannar. The region was part of Cauvery basin, which was formed during the separation of India and Antarctica about 70 million years ago during the `Gondwana period.' The long shore currents on the southern side of island created a discontinuous shoreline eastward from Dhanuskodi to Talaimannar, which is the Adam's Bridge.

Lack of even basic scientific knowledge amongst Sangh Parivar and their supporters is clear from the incredible claim that the first signs of human inhabitants in Sri Lanka date back to the a primitive age, about 1,750,000 years ago. Indeed anyone with even basic familiarity with human evolution would know that modern humans are only about 2, 00,000 years old. The oldest well-dated fossils of modern humans (Homo sapiens) currently known anywhere in the world is just 1, 96,000 years old. The species might have emerged a lakh or two years earlier. In any case 1,750,000 years is far fetched. The Indian sub-continent and Sri Lanka is estimated to be populated by modern humans not earlier than 80,000 years ago.

While the need to debate and discuss questions of environmental concerns and economic viability could be understood, communal twists to developmental concern is a tragedy. Disregarding meticulous and painstaking scientific research and making far-fetched claims, the party that hopes to rule this country is a shame on India and its science. Once more the game of Sangh Parivar is evident , its only concern is to once again divide the nation along the communal lines, pitting one section of our people against another. Nation, development or environment are nothing but lip service.