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ESSENTIAL DESTINATIONS

MONTH: October 2007

The legacy of a winged monkey army

 

CHENNAI--The Central Bureau of Investigation raid on the Blue Cross of India came about two weeks after chief executive Chinny Krishna prominently criticized a government plan to breach Ram Sethu, or Adam's Bridge, an underwater rock formation linking India to Sri Lanka.

Krishna wondered after the September 28, 2007 raid whether the intense political controversy over breaching Ram Sethu might have been involved, but ANIMAL PEOPLE found no hint that it was.

Krishna pointed out, as many others have, that Ram Sethu helped to break the force of the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

Promoted by the Congress Party, which presently heads the Indian federal government, the breach would cut about 30 hours and considerable fuel use from the itineraries of coastal cargo vessels. But it would also considerably alter the aquatic ecology of the strait between India and Sri Lanka, and would be considered an act of sacrilege by many Hindus. Controversy over the proposal reportedly could be a factor in forcing the Congress government to call early elections.

Tradition holds that Ram Sethhu was built by the Lord Rama and his army of winged monkeys in Vedic times, en route to rescue Lord Rama's wife from a Sri Lankan kidnapper, as related in the epic Ramayana.

While Ram Sethu may have begun as a chain of natural limestone shoals, as the Congress government contends, it has been above sea level at various times in recorded history, was historically the main avenue for migration of land animals from India to Sri Lanka, and there is archaeological evidence that it was reinforced at some point by a walled, paved causeway.

Breaching Ram Sethu, discussed for decades, has been opposed by former federal environment minister and minister for animal welfare Maneka Gandhi throughout her political career. Mrs. Gandhi, who founded People for Animals in 1984, has long been closely allied with Chinny Krishna and the Blue Cross.

Originally elected to the Indian Parliament as a member of the Congress Party, Mrs. Gandhi later served as an independent member, and is now a member of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.

The BJP fiercely opposes breaching Ram Sethu, and has regained political momentum from the issue after losing badly in the most recent Indian national election.

Chinny Krishna's comments about Ram Sethu may carry particular influence because of his prominence as one of the engineers of the Indian space program, which traces symbolic origin to Rama's winged monkey army, and because his wife Nanditha Krishna is a prominent Hindu scholar and art historian.