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Ram Setu affidavit controversy
A government affidavit telling the Supreme Court there was no historical proof that Adam's Bridge was built by Rama intensified opposition to the Sethusamudram canal.
The Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project, inaugurated in 2005, required dredging through Adam's Bridge, the chain of shoals between Rameswaram and Sri Lanka that many Hindus call Ram Setu. In 2007 the Archaeological Survey of India and the Union government told the Supreme Court in an affidavit that there was no historical proof that the structure had been built by Rama. Hindu groups opposed dredging through the shoals, and the idea of Ram Setu as a sacred symbol with political weight strengthened amid protests against the project. In 2008 the Union government appointed a committee under R. K. Pachauri to study an alternative alignment, and the project stalled.
