Mannar Trip (2025 March 15) part 7/8 – 1st Island Sri Lanka of Adam’s Bridge

 One of the highlights of our Mannar trip 2025 was the visit to the 1^st SL Island of the Adam’s Bridge.

Adam's Bridge, also known as Rama Setu, is a chain of sandbanks and shallow reefs that stretches between Dhanushkodi, a southeastern point of Rameshwaram Island in India, and Talaimannar in Mannar, Sri Lanka.  The bridge is composed of a remarkable chain of loose and fine sandbanks that are exposed above the water level at irregular intervals. There are 16 locations between Dhanushkodi in India and Talaimannar in Sri Lanka where the structure is exposed as sand dunes. Eight of these locations belong to Sri Lanka, and the other eight to India.

The origin of Adam's Bridge is still a subject of debate, with some theories suggesting it was formed by natural processes and others linking it to the Ramayana epic. Adam's Bridge is mostly submerged in shallow waters, with depths of less than 10 meters.

We planned to travel to the end of the first location (1st Sandy Island of SL) that is closest to Mannar Island, in the evening hours of Saturday 15th of March 2025. Again it was Chamitha who educated us about the possibility of hiring a tractor for this ride that was organized by a nearby local hotel named ‘Sanctum’. We were very glad to join Chamitha and his friends in this expedition on their invitation.

The hotel staff made a list of our group along with our NIC numbers, saying the details needed to be provided at the Navy check point. Unfortunately, the Navy officers at the checkpoint, at the point where we had to cross-over to the first island from the main-land, refused to allow the tractor to cross-over claiming that they had got new orders recently to not allow any vehicles with tourist to pass through.

After losing some time trying to convince the officers to let us through, we finally decided to make our exploration on foot. It was a challenging task to make it to the opposite edge of the sandbank before it got dark. Only a few of our team members were able to get as far as seeing the edge of it. The rest of us had to turn back half-way as the sun was setting and the tides were rising.

It is good to conserve the sandy island as it is said to be used by turtles for nestlings etc. But unlike the further islands that are said to be used by Gull species for laying eggs, which should be strictly conserved with no human interference what-so-ever, this first island could be used for educational tours – through a permitted limited number of tourist tractor-rides per day. And, whoever is truly concerned about the protection of sea-turtles and other wildlife roaming over this sandbank, should urgently consider a method of continuously removing the non-degradable plastic waste that gets piled up on the island. This would require a well-coordinated program with the participation and cooperation of all relevant authorities, including the Mannar’s local authorities.