Ram Sethu is a chain of limestone shoals between Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday a petition seeking to recognise Ram Sethu as a national heritage monument. The petition has been filed by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy.
Here are five points about the Ram Setu bridge:
Ram Sethu, also known as Adam's bridge, is a chain of limestone shoals between Pamban or Rameswaram Island off the south-eastern coast of Tamil Nadu and Mannar Island on the north-western coast of Sri Lanka.
The petition was filed against the controversial Sethusamudram Ship Canal project, which will pass through the shoals on Ram Sethu. The project had faced protests from some political parties, environmentalists and certain Hindu religious groups.
Under the project, a 83-kilometre-long deep water channel was to be created, linking Mannar with Palk Strait, by extensive dredging and removal of the limestone shoals.
The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government, in an affidavit filed in September 2019, had told a bench headed by then Chief Justice Dipak Misra that it considered the "socio-economic disadvantages" of the project and was willing to explore an alternative route to the shipping channel project without damaging Ram Sethu.
It is the belief of millions of Hindus that the Ram Sethu was built by Lord Ram with help from an army of monkeys, to rescue his wife Sita from the demon king Ravana, described in the epic Ramayana.
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