NGT suspends environmental clearance for Neutrino project

The case, which was filed by Poovulagin Nanbargal in 2015, after Rs 1,500 crore was sanctioned by the government for the first phase, stalled the ambitious neutrino project. The multi-institute project to study fundamental particles from the lepton family, in an underground laboratory, was planned in Bodi West hills in Theni. 

G Sundarrajan, the applicant, said that they approached the NGT challenging the environmental clearance accorded to the project. “The EIA was half-baked and done by Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History, which is not accredited. The project also proposed to blast 10 lakh tonnes of rock using five lakh kilograms of explosives. This action will surely affect the 12 reservoirs within a radius of 25 kilometres,” he said. 

M Vetri Selvan, the counsel for the petitioner, said that there was a national park near the proposed site of the INO project and clearance was not obtained from National Board for Wildlife. 

“The Mathikettan Shola National Park is five kilometres from the site and no clearance was sought from the National Board for Wildlife. Considering all this, the NGT has ordered the INO to make a fresh application seeking environmental clearance. The project has been stayed and no further construction is possible,” said the advocate, adding that INO has to make a fresh EIA using an accredited agency before applying for environmental clearance. 

“The INO project was earlier planned in Goa, but later shifted to Maharashtra, and later to Theni. When people from the other states opposed it, the government accepted and shifted the project, but when people of TN opposed, they are branded as ‘anti-science’. 

These hills have been worshipped by locals for centuries and they are afraid that this project will destroy their hills,” concluded Sunderrajan.