No evidence to prove 'Ram Sethu' as man made: Expert

Madurai, July 30 (UNI) ''There is no evidence to prove that the 'Ram Sethu' or Adam's Bridge is a man made structure,'' Sethu Project Environment Monitoring Committee Chairman and Madras University Vice-Chancellor S Ramachandran said today.

''It is a natural geographical formation, which is around 25000-years-old,'' he said at a press conference, after a meeting of the reconstituted monitoring committee here.

''Even NASA has clarified that the Adam's Bridge was nothing but a chain of sand dunes formed through natural sedimentation,'' he said adding such formations were found in the Atlantic ocean and the African coast also.

Maintaining that he did not want to offend anybody's religious faith or belief, he said studies conducted so far had not yielded any evidence to prove that ''Ram Sethu'' was constructed by Lord Rama and his 'Monkey brigade'.

He pointed out that the Adam's Bridge was not being destroyed but only stretch of it being cut to make way for the channel.

The study by the Geological Survey of India (GSI), for which the former Union Minister Uma Bharti had sanctioned Rs 25 lakh had not come forward with any evidence despite a 20-month-long study, Mr Ramachandran noted.

Dismissing the hypothesis that the Adam's Bridge acted as a buffer in the event of a Tsunami, he said it was rather Sri Lanka that bore the brunt of the Tsunami and not the sand dunes.

He said the work on the Sethu Channel was progressing without any hitches.

UNI