After playing politics which led to the closing of the Sterlite copper plant a delegation from Tamil Nadu led by former Union Minister TR Balu met Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal in New Delhi on Monday and demanded the Union government to stop the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) project.
TR Balu is the same politician from the DMK who wanted to dredge the Ram Setu which he called Adams bridge to create ship channels to connect the Gulf of Mannar and Bay of Bengal through the Palk Straits. The proposed Neutrino Observatory is being built of the Western Ghats in Theni district.This is a very important particle physics research project under construction to primarily study atmospheric neutrinos in 1,200 meters (3,900 ft) and ahead of the high-level meeting of PRAGATI (Pro-active Governance and Timely Implementation) chaired by the Prime Minister to be held at New Delhi on Wednesday (September 29), one of the agendas could be the Neutrino Observatory project.
TR Balu during his meeting with the Union Minister, said, “The center cannot threaten the state into submission on the project. The project cannot move forward without the clearance of the Tamil Nadu pollution control board and the National Board for Wildlife.”.
The project is pending before the State Board for Wildlife, under the perview of the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, and the INO project has been delayed for the past two decades due to several court cases and ecological issues creating a barrier for the project.
The particular opposition is mainly on the ecological grounds as the sizeable part of the project would pass through the Project Tiger and the fragile Western Ghats but the fact of the matter is, it is political.
Neutrino Project director Gobinda Majumder told New Indian Express, “Many scientists like me have sacrificed their career for the project. It will be the nation’s loss if we fail in our endeavour.”
Gobinda Majumder in a statement said, “The project comprises 26.825 hectares of revenue land above ground and 4.62 hectares of land underground comprising the tunnels and lab caverns,”.
“The facilities on the surface are restricted to the 26.825 hectares of revenue land and lie completely outside the reserve forest. This would not be of any disturbance to the forest or the tiger corridor,” he said.
However, officials who supposedly know things say the underground component would create an imbalance in the fragile eco-system of Mathikettan Shola through which the project passes and would undermine the Tiger population in the area that has a common tiger corridor with Kerala forest land.
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