Time to declare Ram Setu as national monument: Kalyanaraman

Chennai: “The American science channel has stated what we have been saying all these years; in fact, it has only reiterated what our scriptures, what Ramayana, had said ages ago. Now that the US science channel has reaffirmed that Ram Setu is man-made, the Centre should brook no further delay and declare it as National Monument”.

That was Dr S. Kalyanaraman, the president of the Rameswaram Ram Sethu Protection Movement, one of the petitioners before the Supreme Court praying for halt of the Sethusamudram Ship Canal Project (SSCP). The Apex Court had on September 14 in 2007 stayed the project and the stay is still operational.

“Declaring Ram Setu as National Monument would prevent future attempts to destroy the monument. This is the significance of this Discovery Channel report now”, said Dr Kalyanaraman, whose movement had organized one of the biggest rallies ever, at Rohini Park in New Delhi on 31 December 2007, for a public demand for declaration of Ram Setu as a National Monument and heritage site.

“Over 15 lakh people from all over India attended it. There were three podiums of huge height. All the Dharma Sansads were present to bless the event. There was only one call given by that mass of humanity: Protect Ram Setu”, Dr Kalyanaraman said.

He said there had been reluctance on the part of the government to declare Ram Setu as a national monument. “This reluctance is based on the opinion of one ASI official that for declaring something as a national monument under the Ancient Monuments and Archeological Sites and Remains Act 1958, it must be human intervention and it must be a built heritage. This is not really a correct argument because we have two natural monuments declared as national monuments and also as world heritage sites-Brahma Sarovar in Kurukshetra (a large lake) and Majuli Island in the Brahmaputra River in Assam (1457 sq km river island, one of the largest river islands in the world). But now even assuming that it requires human intervention as a built heritage, this Discovery Channel report takes away that ASI excuse”, he said.

“Eminent geologists Badri Narayanan and K. Gopalakrishnan (he had made the huge minerals map of India, 6ftx6ft map) had proved by doing bathymetric study (studying the depth of sea at different locations) for the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), Chennai, way back in 2007 what this Discovery Channel report is now saying”, he said, adding that there were also revenue records in south Tamil Nadu that showed villages existed on the Ram Setu and people used it as a causeway between India and Sri Lanka.

“All these archeological studies, geological researches and scientific findings are all secondary to the foundational evidence of this being the collective memory of the people, the faith, the Shraddha, of the people and treating a visit to Ram Sethu as pilgrimage”, said Dr Kalyanaraman.