The Palk Strait is a 40-85 mi (64-137 km) wide strait that lies between India's Tamil Nadu state and the island nation of Sri Lanka. It connects the Bay of Bengal to the northeast with the Gulf of Mannar to the south. The strait receives several rivers, most notably the Vaigai River of Tamil Nadu. Simplified diagram A strait is a narrow channel of water that connects two larger bodies of water, and thus lies between two land masses. ... Tamil Nadu (தமிழ் நாடு, Land of the Tamils) is a state at the southern tip of India. ... The Bay of Bengal is a bay that forms the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean. ... The Gulf of Mannar is an arm of the Indian Ocean, lying between the southern tip of India and the west coast of Sri Lanka at a width of between 160 and 200 km (100 to 125 mi). ... The Vaigai is a river in Tamil Nadu state of southern India. ...

It is studded at its southern end with a chain of low islands and reef shoals that are collectively called Rama's Bridge or Adam's Bridge. Rama's Bridge extends between Dhanushkodi on Rameswaram Island (also known as Pamban Island) in Tamil Nadu and Talaimannar on the Mannar island in Sri Lanka. The Island of Rameswaram is linked to the Indian mainland by the Pamban Bridge. Ramas Bridge, Nalas Bridge or Adams Bridge is a chain of limestone shoals, between the islands of Mannar, near northwestern Sri Lanka, and Rameswaram, off the southeastern coast of India. ... Dhanushkodi was a city at the southern tip of the Rameswaram island, at the eastern coast of the Tamil Nadu state of India. ... Rameswaram is a town in the southern part of India in the state of Tamil Nadu. ... Tamil Nadu (தமிழ் நாடு, Land of the Tamils) is a state at the southern tip of India. ... The Pamban Bridge also called Indira Gandhi Bridge lies on the Indian end of the Palk Strait that connects Rameswaram island to mainland India. ...

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 Raj 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, as it is now called, was an Environmental Impact Assessment and a Technical Feasibility Report commissioned by the Tamil Nadu government in 2004. The British Raj is an informal term for the British colonial administration of most of the Indian subcontinent, or present-day India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, also included from 1886 was Burma. ... 1860 is the leap year starting on Sunday. ... The proposed canal The Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project proposes linking the Palk Bay and the Gulf of Mannar between India and Sri Lanka by creating a shipping canal through the shallow sea sometimes called Setu Samudram, and through the island chain of Ramas Bridge. ... 2004 is a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Like the English Channel, the Palk Strait has been taken up as a challenge by many long distance swimmers. The English Channel, also for some time known as the British Sea (French: La Manche, the sleeve) is the part of the Atlantic Ocean that separates the island of Great Britain from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic Ocean. ... Long-distance swimming competitions are swimming competition events in open water, over longer distances than are normally possible in a swimming pool. ...

The Hindu epic Ramayana recounts how Lord Rama with the help of an army of Vanaras or monkeys built a bridge of stones across the sea to Lanka to rescue his wife Sita from the Asura king Ravana. The Ram Karmabhumi movement, encouraged by a NASA satellite photograph which they say proves that remnants of this bridge still exist, was formed to prevent the shipping canal from being built. A Hindu is an adherent of Hinduism, the predominant religious, philosophical and cultural system of Bharat (India). ... Lord Ram, Laxman, Sita and Hanuman(crouching) The Ramayana (Sanskrit: march (ayana) of Rama) is part of the Hindu smriti, written by Valmiki. ... This article is about a Hindu incarnation of God (i. ... Vanara is a Sanskrit word meaning a monkey. ... Lanka is the name given in Hindu mythology to the island fortress capital of the evil king Ravana in the epic Ramayana. ... Sita may refer to any of the following - The Goddess Sita Devi of Hindu mythology SITA (information technology company for aviation industry) The singer by name Sita. ... In Hinduism In Hindu mythology, the Asura are a group of power-seeking deities, sometimes misleadingly referred to as demons. ... Ravana, Indian Demon King of Lanka In Hindu mythology, Ravana is one of the principal antagonists of the Hindu epic, the Ramayana. ... NASA Logo The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which was established in 1958, is the agency responsible for the public space program of the United States of America. ...

The name Adam's Bridge comes from the story that Sri Lanka was the site of the biblical earthly paradise, and that Adam's Bridge was created when Adam was expelled from paradise.

External Links

• Palk Bay on wikicities