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His father was a doctor in Cuttack. He went to England to prepare himself for the bar but was attracted to swim across the Channel. After a few unsuccessful attempts, he became the first Indian to swim the English Channel, from Dover to Calais on September 27, 1958.[1]

Mihir Sen was the first Indian man to swim the English Channel. He achieved this feat on September 27, 1958, when he crossed the Channel in 14 hours and 45 minutes.

Mihir Sen was born on November 16, 1930, in Purulia, West Bengal. His father was a doctor in Cuttack. He went to England to study law but was attracted towards swimming. After achieving the feat of swimming across English Channel, Mihir Sen went on to achieve several other milestones. In 1966, Mihir Sen swam across the seven seas of the five continents. In April 1966, braving high tides and shark-infested waters, he swam across the Palk Straits, the sea between India and Sri Lanka. This swim was between Ceylon and Dhanushkodi. Admiral Chatterjee supported him sending INS Sukanya and INS Sharada with him. In August, he crossed the Straits of Gibraltar between Spain and Morocco and one month later became the world's first man to swim the Straits of Dardanelles. In the same year Mihir Sen also swam across the Bosphorus and the Panama Canal.

Mihir Sen was awarded the Padma Shri in 1959 and Padma Bhushan in 1967.Close Wiki Loves Monuments: Photograph a monument, help Wikipedia and win! Palk Strait From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search Gulf of Mannar, Adam's Bridge, Palk Bay, Palk Strait, Bay of Bengal Adam's Bridge separating Palk Strait from the Gulf of Mannar

Palk Strait (Tamil: பாக் சலசந்தி) is a strait between the Tamil Nadu state of India and the Mannar district of the Northern Province of the island nation of Sri Lanka. It connects the Bay of Bengal in the northeast with the Palk Bay and thence with the Gulf of Mannar in the southwest.[1] The strait is 33 to 50 miles (53 to 80 km) wide.[2] Several rivers flow into it, including the Vaigai River of Tamil Nadu. The strait is named after Robert Palk, who was a governor of Madras Presidency (1755-1763) during the Company Raj period. Contents

1 Geography 2 History 2.1 Proposed canal 3 References 4 External links

Geography

It is studded at its southern end with a chain of low islands and reef shoals that are collectively called Adam's Bridge.[3] This chain extends between Dhanushkodi on Pamban Island (also known as Rameswaram Island) in Tamil Nadu and Mannar Island in Sri Lanka. The island of Rameswaram is linked to the Indian mainland by the Pamban Bridge. History

As from 1914, there used to be regular trains from Madras/Chennai to Dhanushkodi, a ferry to Talaimannar on Mannar Island, and thence a train to Colombo. In 1964, a cyclone destroyed Dhanushkodi and the railway and caused severe damage along the shores of Palk Strait and Palk Bay.[4] Dhanushkodi was not rebuilt and the railway from Talaimannar to Mahawilachchiya in Sri Lanka was given up. There was a ferry between small piers in Rameswaram and Talaimannar, but this was discontinued till date.[5] Proposed canal

The shallow waters and reefs of the strait make it difficult for large ships to pass through, although fishing boats and small craft carrying coastal trade have navigated the strait for centuries. Large ships must travel around Sri Lanka. Construction of a shipping canal through the strait was first proposed to the British government of India in 1860, and a number of commissions have studied the proposal up to the present day. The most recent study of the Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project, as it is now called, was an environmental impact assessment and a technical feasibility study commissioned by the Tamil Nadu government in 2004.[6]

However, the plan encountered opposition from various religious circles. The Indian epic poem Ramayana, written thousands of years ago in Sanskrit and an important Hindu text, recounts how Rama, with the help of an army of vanaras, built a bridge of stones across the sea to Lanka to rescue his wife Sita from the Asura king Ravana. The Ram Karmabhoomi movement, encouraged by a NASA satellite photograph of Rama's Bridge, was formed to prevent the shipping canal from being built.[7]

Rahul Gandhi, a leader of the Congress party, sparked controversy by saying that Rama does not exist. This statement was later taken by Congress as 'Current Government said so'. Later the Government of India, in an affidavit in the Supreme Court of India, stated that there was no historical proof of the bridge being built by Rama. References

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

^ Map of Sri Lanka with Palk Strait and Palk Bay ^ Distances measured on Google Earth ^ "Adam's bridge". Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007. Retrieved 2007-09-14. ^ Land's end ^ Sri Lanka, India to relaunch ferry service after three decades ^ Harnessing the Troubled Waters: Sethusamudram Canal Project ^ "Hanuman bridge is myth: Experts". Times of India. October 19, 2002. Retrieved 2011-04-25.

External links

Photo essay on the Palk Strait. Palk Bay on wikicities Palk Bay Blogspot

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v   t    e

Hydrography of South Asia Inland

Indus Ganges Yamuna Chenab Jhelum Bhagirathi River Brahmaputra Godavari Narmada Tapti Ravi Beas Sutlej Padma Sarasvati Sharda Krishna Kaveri Kali River Meghna Gandaki River Mahanadi Mahaweli Son Ghaghara Betwa Chambal Kosi Sankosh Ganges Basin Ganges Delta Indus Delta Dal Lake Pookode Lake Skeleton Lake Chilika Lake Lake Powai Borith Lake Saiful Muluk Gosaikunda Nizam Sagar Red Hills Lake Malampuzha Kerala Backwaters Damodar Luni

Coastal

Indian Ocean Arabian Sea Laccadive Sea Bay of Bengal Gulf of Kutch Gulf of Khambhat Palk Strait Gulf of Mannar

Categories

Lakes of India / Nepal / Pakistan Reservoirs and dams in India Rivers of Bangladesh / Bhutan / India / Nepal / Pakistan

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References

^ Bose, Anjali, Samsad Bangali Chariutabhidhan, Vol II, (Bengali)p. 268, Sishu Sahitya Samsad Pvt. Ltd., ISBN 81-86806-99-7

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1930 births 1997 deaths Indian swimmers Recipients of the Padma Bhushan Recipients of the Padma Shri People from Purulia district University of Calcutta alumni Sportspeople from West Bengal

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