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NASA debunks Rama bridge theory . NASA
poured cold water on claims by Hindu news services that the US
agency's spaceborne cameras had discovered the remains of the
mythical bridge built by Rama across the Palk Strait.
"Remote
sensing images or photographs from orbit cannot provide direct
information about the origin or age of a chain of islands, and
certainly cannot determine whether humans were involved in producing
any of the patterns seen," said NASA official Mark Hess.
NRI
websites like Indolink.com and the Vaishnava News Network had run a
story earlier this week saying that "space images taken by
NASA" had revealed "a mysterious ancient bridge in the
Palk Strait." The story gained currency when it was picked up,
unquestioningly, by the PTI.
NASA
said the mysterious bridge was nothing more than a 30 km long,
naturally-occuring chain of sandbanks called Adam's bridge. Hess
said his agency had been taking pictures of these shoals for years.
Its images had never resulted in any scientific discovery in the
area.
The
Internet story further claimed "archaeological studies reveal
that the first signs of human inhabitants in Sri Lanka date back
to…about 1.75 million years ago" as does the age of the
bridge. This, in turn, matched the age when the events of the
Ramayana took place.
Historian
B.D. Chattopadhyay of Jawaharlal Nehru University says the
archaeological record says nothing of the sort. There is no evidence
of a human presence in the subcontinent, he says, before roughly
250,000 to 300,000 years ago. It is generally believed man's hominid
ancestors did not leave their African home until about two million
years ago.
At
least three ship channels have been dug through Adam's Bridge
without any evidence of manmade construction. The sandbanks are not
at a greater depth, never being more than 3 or 4 feet at high tide.
Geologists believe the sandbank did at one time rise above sealevel.
Temple
records suggest it was submerged by a violent storm as recently as
1480.
Communication
experts say that false, suspect news finds much greater circulation
than normal because of the internet. NASA's Hess said, "The
images reproduced on the websites may well be ours, but their
interpretation is certainly not ours." Source:
Hindustantimes.com |
