Nagpur: Whether the so-called Ram Sethu is a man-made or a natural occurrence would be conclusively established soon. The Indian Council for Historical Research (ICHR) has cleared a proposal for an underwater archeological study of the apparent bridge-like structure between Pamban Island off Tamil Nadu coast and Sri Lanka’s Mannar Island.

Nasa had released pictures of this 30km long structure, first claiming that it was man-made but later saying that it was a naturally occurring chain of sandbanks.

Prof Alok Tripathi, director, Centre for Archaeology and Museology at Assam University, who was in city on Tuesday, said that he would be leading the ICHR project. Alok delivered a talk on underwater archaeology investigations in India at Nagpur University’s department of ancient history, culture and archaeology. He is the country’s first underwater archaeologist and has experience of 30 years now.

Tripathi would also be the resource person for a three-week certificate course being proposed by Prof Preeti Trivedy, head of the department.

Tripathi told TOI that though the project was sanctioned last year by ICHR it could not take off due to weather conditions off Tamil Nadu, where it rains till December. The depth of the water in the Ram Sethu stretch is just about 7-9 meter, hence it will not be a very difficult project. “We would be taking support of all agencies required to complete the study. But ICHR has allocated Rs5 lakh exclusively for the study,” he said.

Earlier, sharing the experience of excavating remains of human habitation in Bangaram Island at Lakshadweep, Tripathi said that was the deepest (60m) underwater archaeological study conducted in Asia by him. This was a ship wreckage and Navy diving vessels were used for the project.

Tripathi was also involved in assessing the underwater remains of temples of Mahabalipuram, which is a monolithic site made around 300BC. This study has suggested that there was a much bigger shore temple besides the present temple. However, it could not take its own weight and sank into the sea.

Talking about Dwarka excavations, Tripathi said that the 2000-year-old settlement was now completely underwater. People had ventured from here into south east Asia. Chola kings had a huge navy base, which roamed the entire south east Asian region, and still there is need to study such places to recreate history and bring to fore the missing links in history.

On his study of Loktak lake in Manipur, Tripathi admitted that not much could be understood about the archaeological aspects of the site as there is huge amount of weed in the lake and it was difficult to dive and navigate in the area.

Tripathi said that underwater archaeology had huge potential for understanding the history of India, but unfortunately this science has always been neglected.

