National Green Tribunal issues notice to Centre among others on proposed neutrino observatory

The southern bench of the National Green Tribunal at Chennai on Friday issued notices to the central and state governments on a petition challenging the environmental clearance granted to the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) project in Tamil Nadu.

 

Representational Picture of Neutrinos

The Rs. 1,500 crore project is aimed at building a world class underground laboratory (at a depth of 4,300 feet) at Bodi Hills in Theni district to study neutrinos, tiny electrically neutral and nearly massless particles which cannot be broken further.

The project, jointly supported by the department of atomic energy and the department of science and technology, was given final approval by the Centre in January this year. The project is facing opposition from environmentalists as the site chosen is located in the ecologically sensitive Western Ghats.

G Sundarajan of Theni, who filed the petition, said the Union government granted the clearance to the project in June 2011 without following the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) guidelines. There was no detailed study to find out the impact of blasting more than 6 lakh tonnes of rock on the aquifers, rivers and reservoirs in the region, he said. The project would affect groundwater and surface water bodies which fed three river systems: Periyar, Vaigai and Vaippar in Idukki district of Kerala and 12 dams in Tamil Nadu, all located within a radius of 50km from the proposed site.

He said the expert appraisal committee provided the clearance without satisfying itself about the impact of the project. Categorisation of the project as a 'basic science project' was wrong as no statute contained such classification, he said.

A Bench of the NGT comprising of judicial member Justice M Chockalingam and expert member R Nagendran issued notices to the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests, Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary, State-Level Environmental Impact Assessment Authority, Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board and Institute of Mathematical Science, asking them to file their replies. 

The bench then posted the matter to April 7 for further hearing.

Additional Bench of the National Green Tribunal to be constituted in Chennai

In order to speed up the disposal of disputes pending before the southern Bench of National Green Tribunal (NGT), an additional bench is being set up in Chennai. Chennai already has a Bench for hearing cases from the southern states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh and the Union Territories of Puducherry and Lakshadweep, but the pendency before it has kept steadily increasing in recent times, necessitating the constitution of an additional Bench. At last count, the pendency of cases before the Southern Zone Bench of the NGT at Chennai is in excess of 1,500 cases.

National Green Tribunal, Southern Zone Bench at Chennai

One of the major reasons for the pendency in cases before the NGT Bench at Chennai is the lack of progress with respect to cases transferred from the High Courts in the four southern states, and especially from the High Court of Kerala. There are also frequent delays on the part of government departments concerned of other states and the Centre in filing their counter statement/replies. 

The NGT Bench at Chennai will be the first of the NGT Benches in the country to have an additional Bench. The NGT, which came into existence in 2010, has presently one bench each in New Delhi (principal bench), Bhopal (central zone), Pune (western zone), Kolkata (eastern zone) and Chennai (southern zone). 

The Tamil Nadu state Pollution Control Board vacated its office of the district environment engineer at Arumbakkam recently and civil work has begun to accommodate the additional Bench.

The existing Bench is headed by judicial member Justice M Chockalingam, and expert member R Nagendran.