Friends of Scientifica
On 20 November 2009, Ministry of Environment (India) Minister Jairam Ramesh in a
letter to Anil Kakodkar, Secretary, Department of Atomic Energy and Chairman,Atomic
Energy Commission of India, denied permission for the Department of Atomic Energy to
set up the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) project at Singara in Nilgiris, as it falls
in the buffer zone of the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR). Jairam Ramesh said that based
on the report of Rajesh Gopal, Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF)
and Member-Secretary of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (MS-NTCA), the
Ministry cannot approve the Singara site. The report says:
"The proposed project site falls in the buffer zone of Mudumalai Tiger Reserve and is in
close proximity to the core/critical tiger habitats of Bandipur and Mudumalai Tiger
reserves. It is also an elephant corridor, facilitating elephant movement from the Western
Ghats to the Eastern Ghats and vice versa. The area is already disturbed on account of
severe biotic pressure due to human settlements and resorts and that the construction
phase of the project would involve transport of building materials through the highways
passing through the core area of the Bandipur and Mudmulai Tiger Reserves.
Instead, he suggested an alternate site near Suruli Falls, Theni District in Tamil Nadu.
The Minister said this site did not pose the same problems that Singara posed and
environmental and forest clearances should not be a serious issue. He also assured the
DAE that the Ministry would facilitate necessary approvals for the alternative location. Dr
Naba K Mondal of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, who is the spokesperson
for the INO project said:
"But Suruliyar too is in a reserved forest area that is dense and would require cutting
down of trees, something that was not required at Singara. Can the government assure us
that forest clearance for this site will be given," he asks. "Alternatively, we can move to the
nearby Thevaram, which is about 20-30 km away from the Suruliyar falls. This forest
area has only shrubs but there is no source of water here and water will have to be piped
over a distance of 30 km,"
On 18 October 2010, the Ministry of Environment & Forests approved both environment
and forest clearance for setting up the observatory in the Bodi West Hills Reserved Forest
in the Theni district of Tamil Nadu.
As of February 2012, the land was allocated to the INO collaboration by the government of
Tamil Nadu and the excavation work was about to start. Naba K Mondal, chief
spokesperson of INO project and a senior scientist at the Tata Institute of Fundamental
Research, Mumbai, told The Hindu that the pre-project work will start in April 2012
and ₹ 66 crores has been sanctioned for the work. The first task will be to have a road
connectivity from Rasingapuram to Pottipuram village. The project is expected to be
completed in 2015 at an estimated cost of ₹ 1,500 crores.
On 18 September 2012, Kerala’s octogenarian Opposition leader and CPI(M) central
committee member VS Achuthanandan expressed anxiety over establishing a neutrino
observatory on the Theni-Idukki border between Tamil Nadu and Kerala, citing
environmental and radiological issues. Soon the INO collaboration clarified on all the
issues raised by him and the responses are on the INO website.
April, 2016