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The Palk Strait is a strait
Strait

A strait or straits is a narrow, navigable channel of water that connects two larger navigable bodies of water. It most commonly refers to a channel of water that lies between two land masses, but it may also refer to a navigable channel through a body of water that is otherwise not navigable, for example because it is too shallow, or...
 that lies between the Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu is one of the 28 States and territories of India of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai . Tamil Nadu lies in the southern most part of the Indian Peninsula and is bordered by Puducherry , Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh....
 state
States and territories of India

India is a Federal_republic union of states comprising twenty-eight State s and seven Union Territory. The states and territories are further Subdivisions of India into districts and so on....
 of India
India

India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
 and the island nation
Island nation

An island country is a country whose primary territory consists of one or more islands or parts of islands. As of 2008, forty-seven of the List of countries are island countries....
 of Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is an island country in South Asia, located about off the southern coast of India....
. It connects the Bay of Bengal
Bay of Bengal

The Bay of Bengal is a Headlands and bays that forms the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean. It resembles a triangle in shape, and is bordered by India and Sri Lanka to the West, Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal to the North , and Myanmar, southern part of Thailand and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands to the East....
 to the northeast with the Gulf of Mannar
Gulf of Mannar

The Gulf of Mannar is a large shallow bay that is an arm of the Laccadive Sea in the Indian Ocean. It lies between the southeasternern tip of India and the west coast of Sri Lanka with widths between 160 and 200 km ....
 to the south. The strait is 40 to 85 miles (64-137 km) wide. Several rivers flow into it, including the Vaigai River
Vaigai River

The Vaigai is a river in Madurai,Tamil Nadu state of southern India. The actual name is Vaiyai in Tamil language and the name has been referred as vaigai....
 of Tamil Nadu.






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Adams Bridge Map
The Palk Strait is a strait
Strait

A strait or straits is a narrow, navigable channel of water that connects two larger navigable bodies of water. It most commonly refers to a channel of water that lies between two land masses, but it may also refer to a navigable channel through a body of water that is otherwise not navigable, for example because it is too shallow, or...
 that lies between the Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu is one of the 28 States and territories of India of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai . Tamil Nadu lies in the southern most part of the Indian Peninsula and is bordered by Puducherry , Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh....
 state
States and territories of India

India is a Federal_republic union of states comprising twenty-eight State s and seven Union Territory. The states and territories are further Subdivisions of India into districts and so on....
 of India
India

India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
 and the island nation
Island nation

An island country is a country whose primary territory consists of one or more islands or parts of islands. As of 2008, forty-seven of the List of countries are island countries....
 of Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is an island country in South Asia, located about off the southern coast of India....
. It connects the Bay of Bengal
Bay of Bengal

The Bay of Bengal is a Headlands and bays that forms the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean. It resembles a triangle in shape, and is bordered by India and Sri Lanka to the West, Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal to the North , and Myanmar, southern part of Thailand and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands to the East....
 to the northeast with the Gulf of Mannar
Gulf of Mannar

The Gulf of Mannar is a large shallow bay that is an arm of the Laccadive Sea in the Indian Ocean. It lies between the southeasternern tip of India and the west coast of Sri Lanka with widths between 160 and 200 km ....
 to the south. The strait is 40 to 85 miles (64-137 km) wide. Several rivers flow into it, including the Vaigai River
Vaigai River

The Vaigai is a river in Madurai,Tamil Nadu state of southern India. The actual name is Vaiyai in Tamil language and the name has been referred as vaigai....
 of Tamil Nadu. The strait is named after Robert Palk
Robert Palk

Sir Robert Palk, 1st Baronet was an English cleric and politician. He is mostly known for his involvement with the British East India Company and his term as governor of the Madras Presidency....
, who was a governor of Madras Presidency
Madras Presidency

Madras Presidency , also known as Madras Province and known officially as Presidency of Fort St. George, was a province of British India....
 (1755-1763) during the British Raj
British Raj

British Raj primarily refers to the British rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; it can also refer to the period of dominion, and even the region under the rule....
 period.

It is studded at its southern end with a chain
Archipelago

An archipelago is a chain or cluster of islands that are formed tectonically. The word archipelago literally means "chief sea", from Italian language arcipelago , derived ultimately from Greek language arkhon and pelagos ....
 of low islands and reef
Reef

In nautical terminology, a reef is a Rock , bar , or other feature lying beneath the surface of the water .Many reefs result from abiotic processes?deposition of sand, wave erosion planning down rock outcrops, and other natural processes?but the best-known reefs are the coral reefs of tropical waters developed through biotic processes do...
 shoals that are collectively called Adam's Bridge (or the original name Rama
RAMA

Rama is a first-person adventure game developed and published by Sierra Entertainment in 1996. The game is based on Arthur C. Clarke's books Rendezvous with Rama and Rama II and supports both DOS and Microsoft Windows 95....
's Bridge). This chain extends between Dhanushkodi
Dhanushkodi

Dhanushkodi is a town/village at the southern tip of the Rameswaram island, at the eastern coast of the Tamil Nadu state of India.Dhanushkodi is situated in the South-East of Pamban....
 on Rameswaram
Rameswaram

Rameswaram is a town in Ramanathapuram district in the Indian States and territories of India of Tamil Nadu. It is located on an island separated from mainland India by the Pamban channel and is less than 40 kilometers from the Jaffna Peninsula, Sri Lanka....
 in Tamil Nadu and Talaimannar
Talaimannar

Talaimannar is a port settlement in Sri Lanka located on the westernmost tip of Mannar Island. Until the 1980s it was the terminus of a ferry service to India across the very shallow Palk Straight....
 in Mannar
Mannar

Mannar district is one of the 25 Districts of Sri Lanka of Sri Lanka. The district is administered by a District Secretariat headed by a Government Agent appointed by the Politics of Sri Lanka....
 in Sri Lanka. The island of Rameswaram is linked to the Indian mainland by the Pamban Bridge
Pamban Bridge

The Pamban Bridge on the Palk Strait connects Rameswaram to mainland India. It refers to both the road bridge and the cantilever railway bridge, though primarily it means the latter....
.

The shallow waters and reefs of the strait make it difficult for large ships to pass through, although fishing boats and small craft carrying coastal trade have navigated the strait for centuries. Large ships must travel around Sri Lanka. Construction of a shipping canal through the strait was first proposed to the British government of India in 1860, and a number of commissions have studied the proposal up to the present day. The most recent study of the Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project
Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project

Sethusamudram Ship Channel Project proposes linking the Palk Bay and the Gulf of Mannar between India and Sri Lanka by creating a shipping Channel through the shallow sea sometimes called Setu Samudram, and through the island chain of Adam's Bridge, also known as ram sethu....
, as it is now called, was an environmental impact assessment
Environmental impact assessment

An environmental impact assessment is an assessment of the possible impact—positive or negative—that a proposed project may have on the natural environment....
 and a technical feasibility study
Feasibility study

If a project is seen to be feasible from the results of the study, the next logical step is to proceed with it. The research and information uncovered in the feasibility study will support the detailed planning and reduce the research time....
 commissioned by the Tamil Nadu government in 2004.

Like the English Channel
English Channel

The English Channel is an Arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest, to only in the Strait of Dover....
, the Palk Strait has been taken up as a challenge by many long-distance swimmers.

The Indian epic poem
Indian epic poetry

Indian epic poetry is the epic poetry written in the Indian subcontinent. Originally composed in Sanskrit and translated thereafter into Kannada, Tamil language and Hindi, it includes some of the oldest epic poetry ever created and some works form the basis of Hindu scripture....
 Ramayana, written thousands of years ago in Sanskrit
Sanskrit

Sanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India....
 and an important Hindu text
Hindu scripture

Literature regarded as central to the Hindu literary tradition was predominantly composed in Sanskrit, Indeed, much of the Morphology and Linguistics philosophy inherent in the learning of Sanskrit is inextricably linked to study of the Vedas and other Hindu texts....
, recounts how Rama
RAMA

Rama is a first-person adventure game developed and published by Sierra Entertainment in 1996. The game is based on Arthur C. Clarke's books Rendezvous with Rama and Rama II and supports both DOS and Microsoft Windows 95....
, with the help of an army of vanara
Vanara

Vanara popularly refers to the race of ape-like humanoids in the Hindu epic Ramayana who were brave and inquisitive by nature. The name Vanara could also be an abbreviation of the from Vana-nara ....
s, built a bridge of stones across the sea to Lanka
Lanka

Lanka is the name given in Hindu mythology to the island fortress capital of the king Ravana in the epics Ramayana and Mahabharata, and is what is thought to be present day Sri Lanka....
 to rescue his wife Sita
SITA

SITA is a multinational corporation information technology company specialising in providing IT and telecommunication services to the aviation industry....
 from the Asura
Asura

Sorry, no overview for this topic
 king Ravana
Ravana

Ravana, also transliterated as Raavana, Ravan or Raavan, was a mythical king of rakshasas , with great supernatural power, who is said to have ruled Lanka about 6000 years ago....
. The Ram Karmabhumi movement, encouraged by a NASA
NASA

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an agency of the Federal government of the United States, responsible for the nation's public list of space agencies....
 satellite photograph which they say proves that remnants of this bridge still exist, was formed to prevent the shipping canal from being built.

The name Adam's Bridge is a later play than Rama
RAMA

Rama is a first-person adventure game developed and published by Sierra Entertainment in 1996. The game is based on Arthur C. Clarke's books Rendezvous with Rama and Rama II and supports both DOS and Microsoft Windows 95....
's bridge and derives from the story that South India
South India

South India is the area encompassing India's states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu as well as the Union territories of India of Lakshadweep and Pondicherry, occupying 19.31% of area....
 or Sri Lanka was the site of the biblical earthly paradise
Paradise

Paradise is an idealized place in which existence is positive, harmonious and timeless. It is conceptually a counter-image of the miseries of human civilization, and in paradise there is only peace, prosperity, and happiness....
, and that Adam's Bridge was created when Adam was expelled from paradise.

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