Sri Lanka-India ties must be strengthened for mutual benefits
By Parmanand Pandey Sri Lanka is an island which is surrounded by the Arabian Sea in the west, Way of Bengal in the east, the Indian Ocean in the south and the Palk Strait in the north was once the part of the Indian subcontinent. It is separated by a narrow and a very shallow sea of just 37 km in length at the narrowest point of India’s Dhanushkoti in Tamilnadu and Mannar district of Northern Province of Sri Lanka. It is so shallow that only boats, not ships, can be operated through this strait. It is said that two engineers- Nal and Neel- of Lord Rama’s army had built a bridge to cross over to Sri Lanka. That is why it is called Ram Setu. It is really strange that instead of calling it Ram Setu strait, it is known as the Palk Strait after the name of Robert Palk, who was the governor of Tamilnadu sometimes in the 18 th century. Northern and Eastern part of Sri Lanka consists mostly of Tamilians, who outnumber Sinhalese but in Central, Southern and Western parts of Sri Lank