Palk Strait
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Palk Strait is a strait between the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and Northern Province of Sri Lanka. It connects the Palk Bay in the Bay of Bengal in the north with the Gulf of Mannar in the Laccadive sea in the south. It stretches for about Template:Cvt and is Template:Cvt wide. It is named after Robert Palk, who was a governor of Madras (1755–1763) during the Company Raj period.
Several rivers including the Vaigai flow into the strait. The strait consists of many islands and is interspersed with a chain of low islands and reef shoals that are collectively called Ram Setu or Adam's bridge. The shallow waters and reefs make it difficult for large ships to pass through, although fishing boats and small craft navigate the waters. Dredging the sea to make it deeper for navigation and plans for a bridge over the waters have been proposed.
GeographyEdit
The Palk strait extends between Pamban island in the south eastern tip of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and Thalaimannar in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka. It connects the Palk Bay in the Bay of Bengal in the north with the Gulf of Mannar in the Laccadive sea in the south. It stretches for about Template:Cvt and is Template:Cvt wide. Several rivers including the Vaigai flow into the strait.<ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref>
The strait consists of many islands and is interspersed with a chain of low islands and reef shoals that are collectively called Ram Setu or Adam's bridge.<ref>Template:Cite EB1911</ref> As per the Hindu epic Ramayana, the bridge was purportedly constructed by the vanara army of Rama to rescue Rama's wife Sita from the Asura king Ravana.<ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> The strait is relatively shallow with the region around the shoals typically around Template:Cvt deep, while the central part of the strait is typically around Template:Cvt deep. The strait reaches a maximum depth of Template:Cvt.<ref name="Geo">Template:Cite journal</ref>
GeologyEdit
Due to lowered sea levels during the Last Glacial Period (115,000-11,700 years Before Present) where sea levels reached a maximum of Template:Cvt below present values, the entirety of the relatively shallow strait was exposed as dry land. Following the rise to present sea levels during the Holocene, by around 7,000 years ago, the strait became submerged.<ref name="Geo"/> The waves around it, to its north and south are of high contrast. To the north, the waves in the Bay of Bengal are mostly swells while that on the south, in the Palk Bay, the waves are mostly smaller wind waves.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> The significant wave heights is relatively low with an average of around Template:Cvt close to the Ram Setu.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Edit
The shallow waters and reefs make it difficult for large ships to pass through, although fishing boats and small craft navigate the waters. Dredging the sea to make it deeper for navigation and plans for a bridge over the waters have been proposed.<ref name="Canal">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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. The latest of which was the Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project was commissioned by the Government of India in 2005.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> However, the plan encountered opposition on religious grounds.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
The island of Rameswaram is linked to the Indian mainland by the Pamban Bridge, which was opened for traffic on 24 February 1914.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> A new railway bridge was completed near the old Pamban Bridge in 2024 after rail transportation on the old bridge was suspended permanently in February 2023 due to concerns on stability of the bridge.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> An adjacent road bridge was opened in 1988.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Trains used to traverse from Madras to Dhanushkodi at the southern tip of the Pamban island and a ferry connected to Talaimannar on the Mannar Island, before a train carried passengers to Colombo. The railway line to Dhanushkodi was destroyed during 1964 Dhanushkodi cyclone along with the Pamban-Dhanuskodi passenger train, killing around 200 people.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The ferry service continued till the 1970s between Rameswaram and Talaimannar, but was discontinued, and was reopened in 2011.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Palk Strait bridge, was an undersea tunnel linking India and Sri Lanka proposed to be constructed across the Palk Strait.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
See alsoEdit
ReferencesEdit
External linksEdit
Template:Waters of South Asia Template:Geography of Sri Lanka Template:List of seas