TAP TO UNMUTE Representative Image | Photo Credit: Indiatimes

New Delhi: The Ram Setu Bridge, also called the Adam ’s Bridge, between India and Sri Lanka, was not a natural formation as previously thought but man-made, a special show on a popular international channel has claimed citing American scientists. If true, this could be a ground-breaking discovery with far-reaching implications.

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This finding, to be aired on a show called Ancient Land Bridge on the Discovery Communications-owned Science Channel in the US, gives credence to the age-old Hindu mythological text, Ramayana, which first mentions the construction of the Ram Setu Bridge, under the guidance of Lord Rama.

The show quotes a few American geologists, archaeologists and scientists as saying that the Ram Setu, which connects Pamban Island near Rameshwaram in India to Mannar Island off Sri Lanka, was actually man-made.

The show is scheduled to air at 7:30 am on Wednesday.

The promo of the show, tweeted by Science Channel’s official twitter handle, has already set social media abuzz, garnering more than 16,000 likes and 14,000 retweets in less than a day of it being posted. It has been viewed 1,90,000 times on Twitter till now.

The promo tweet reads, "Are the ancient Hindu myths of a land bridge connecting India and Sri Lanka true? Scientific analysis suggests they are.”

Are the ancient Hindu myths of a land bridge connecting India and Sri Lanka true? Scientific analysis suggests they are. #WhatonEarth pic.twitter.com/EKcoGzlEET — Science Channel (@ScienceChannel) December 11, 2017

In fact, Union Minister Smriti Irani also retweeted the promo, along with the words “Jai Shree Ram”.

In the promo video, Chelsea Rose, an American archaeologist says, “The rocks on top of the sand actually pre-date the sand. So there is more to the story.”

In fact, according to the research by the American scientists quoted by the channel, the stones were dated to be nearly 7,000 years whereas the sand on which they are situated was only 4,000 years old.

These data suggest that the structure captured on the satellite image is not natural, the narrator of the show informs the audience.

It indicates that even though the sand bar was natural, the rocks were probably transferred on it from other place, the show’s narrator explains.

The purported findings have already sparked a political debate in the country with BJP leaders questioning the Congress previous stand where the party had told the Supreme Court that there was no historical proof that Lord Rama had existed.

The statements formed a part of the UPA government’s argument against the then opposition BJP’s demand for the scrapping of the Sethusamudram project on the grounds that it would destroy a part of the Ram Setu.

In 2005, the UPA-1 government had proposed a shipping canal project that would have dredged the area and damaged the formation, referred to as the RamSetu by Hindu organisations. The project was thus challenged by the BJP in the apex court.