Palk Strait
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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. It is named after Robert Palk, governor of Madras Presidency (1755-1763).
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.
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.
Like the English Channel, the Palk Strait has been taken up as a challenge by many long distance swimmers.
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.
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.
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- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
  Waters of South Asia   |
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|---|---|
| Inland | Indus | Ganges | Yamuna | Chenab | Jhelum | Brahmaputra | Godavari | Narmada | Tapti | Ravi | Beas | Sutlej | Dudh Kosi | Padma | Sarasvati | Krishna | Kaveri | Meghna | Mahanadi | Son | Ghaghara | Betwa | Chambal | Kosi | Sapt Koshi | Tamur | Mo Chhu | Sankosh | Drangme Chhu | Ganga basin | Ganges Delta | Indus Delta | Dal Lake | Pookode Lake | Skeleton Lake | Chilika Lake | Lake Powai | Borith Lake | Saiful Muluk | Gosaikunda | Nizam Sagar | Red Hills Lake | Malampuzha | Kerala Backwaters |
| Off the Coast | Indian Ocean | Arabian Sea | Laccadive Sea | Bay of Bengal | Gulf of Kutch | Gulf of Khambhat | Palk Bay | Gulf of Mannar |
| Main | Reservoirs and dams in India | Lakes of India | Rivers of India | Lakes of Pakistan | Rivers of Pakistan | Rivers of Bangladesh | Rivers of Bhutan | Lakes of Nepal | Rivers of Nepal |
