Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board’s reply sought on appeal against neutrino lab

CHENNAI: The southern bench of the National Green Tribunal has directed the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) to reply to an appeal filed by an NGO against the environmental clearance granted for the construction of the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) by the ministry of environment, forest and climate change.
After the TNPCB said various studies had to be conducted pertaining to the project, the green court posted the matter for further hearing on October 28.Earlier, G Sundarrajan of the NGO Poovulagin Nanbargal had filed an appeal against the environmental clearance granted to the project located in Amprappar hills in Theni district.
The NGO has also submitted a representation to the member secretary of the TNPCB to defer the application seeking its consent of establishment before beginning the project. According to the representation, while the underground facility of the project would be 2.5 hectares, it would cover 1.7 hectares above the ground, while the total water requirement was 340 kilolitres per day.
The representation said that about 4.62 hectares of forest land was diverted for setting up the underground laboratory and that the construction involved building an approximately 2000m long horizontal tunnel to reach it. Around six lakh tonnes of rock had to be blasted for the project, and no study was undertaken to study the impact of the project, it said.
Claiming that the Ecology Impact Assessment undertaken in November 2010 was flawed, it underscored that the INO was situated in the Idukki-Theni charnockyte aquifer with an area of about 4500 sqkm. The aquifer and the surface water bodies fed three river systems – Periyar, Vaigai and Vaippar. Idukki district, the water capital for six districts of Kerala and TN, had 12 dams storing 5 billion cubic meters of water, all within a radius of 50 km from the proposed site.
While Idukki dam was located 30 km from the proposed site, Mullaperiyar dam was 50 km from the site. “As the hydroelectric projects on these dams account for about two-thirds of the electricity generated in Kerala, more than 50 million people in the two states have a stake in the waters of Idukki,” the letter added.