Chennai, July 28: Ram’s army did not build Ramar Sethu after all — nature did.

Nasa has clarified in response to a query that the islet chain linking Tamil Nadu with Sri Lanka was not man-made but a natural formation that came up several centuries ago.

The Sethusamudram Ship Canal Project, which seeks to open a direct channel between India’s east and west coasts by deepening Palk Strait, is being opposed by the BJP and the Sangh parivar because it will involve demolition of Ramar Sethu or Adam’s Bridge.

The bridge was built by Ram’s vanar sena (army of monkeys) to allow him to reach Lanka and rescue Sita, they hold, therefore it cannot be pulled down for reasons of faith. Several petitions against the demolition are now lying before the Supreme Court.

Project corporation chief and Tuticorin Port Trust chairman N.K. Reghupathy held a news conference today to release copies of Nasa’s email, sent on July 26, in response to queries by a project official.

“Thank you for your message. Our office supports only astronaut photography of the Earth, so all that we are able to offer you regarding Adam’s Bridge is the following: ‘The chain of small islets connecting India and Sri Lanka are real geographical features that have been mapped for centuries. Chains of islands form from a variety of natural geological processes and their occurrence is not evidence of any human activity’.”

The message has been signed “Earthweb, The Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth, NASA Johnson Space Center”, and addressed to Sivakumar Kalidasan, the official from Madurai who sent the queries.

Nasa was approached because the BJP and parivar outfits were citing Nasa satellite photos that were released years ago in support of their argument, Reghupathy said.

The BJP refused to react, with spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy saying: “Unless and until we know what Nasa said, we cannot say anything.”

But Rajendra Singh Pankaj, central secretary of the VHP, said: “We hold whatever is written in our Puranic texts to be the absolute truth. The texts are as true today as when they were first written.

“We have not seen or heard what Nasa said today. But the same Nasa did satellite mapping of the Rameshwaram area from 1983 to 1999 and in 1991, they had an exhibition of the satellite photographs in Delhi where the bridge was called Ram Setu. So why did Nasa go back on what it said then?”

The series of sand-dune islets and shallows that stretch from Dhanushkodi near Rameshwaram in Tamil Nadu to Talaimannar off the Sri Lankan coast have long been popularly called Ramar Sethu or Ram Setu.

The Sethusamudram channel, dubbed the Suez of the East, will shorten shipping routes by up to 424 nautical miles (780 km) and sailing time by 30 hours, saving fuel. Since ships will not have to go through Colombo, Rs 1,000 crore a year will be saved in transhipment charges. At present, ships have to take a detour around Sri Lanka.

Much of the dredging in the Palk Bay, where Adam’s Bridge is located, is yet to begin.

Project official Sivakumar had in his email to Nasa asked it throw light on the “burning question” — whether the bridge is man-made or not.

While “religious fundamentalists” insist it was once constructed by human beings, Sivakumar said, some others maintain that it was not man-made. The water in the area was shallow and the sediments underneath appear like a narrow bridge, they argue. Sivakumar also drew Nasa’s attention to a third theory — that the “gap between India and Sri Lanka” was once covered by a vast landmass that has since gone under water, and Adam’s Bridge is nothing but the peak of a submerged mountain.

Reghupathy said as on June 30, 2007, Rs 253.23 crore had been spent on the project. He was confident the November 2008 deadline for the channel would be met.