Ramesh calls for eco-impact report on mega lab

Union Minister for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh has asked top tiger conservation body to study the ecological impact of what has been billed as the country’s biggest science project that awaits forest clearance, reports Chetan Chauhan.

Updated on: Oct 5, 2009, 24:39:57 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Union Minister for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh has asked top tiger conservation body to study the ecological impact of what has been billed as the country’s biggest science project that awaits forest clearance.

The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) has been asked to assess the ecological impact of the proposed Rs 900 crore neutrino observatory (INO).

Neutrinos are elementary particles key to understanding how the universe evolved.

“I have asked the NCTA to study the project site before my visit later this month,” Ramesh told HT. He is expected to visit the site — 1.3 km into the ground under the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve at Masinagudi in Tamil Nadu — on October 10.

On October 2, HT had written that the world’s scientific community was eagerly awaiting for the project to take off.

The project has got the environment clearance, but opposition by environment groups has stalled forest clearance.

Bombay Natural History Society Director Asad Rahmani and some other conservationists have written to Ramesh, objecting to the location.

“There is opposition to the site but we’re exploring alternatives,” said a senior ministry official, who didn’t wish to be identified.

“The laboratory is important... and we must find a way out soon,” said Ramesh.

He has asked NCTA member secretary Rajesh Gopal to submit report by this weekend. Gopal has also been asked to suggest alternative sites, if needed, the official said.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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