Kakodkar pitches for Neutrino project in the Nilgiris

Anil Kakodkar, chairman of the Department of Atomic Energy, has made a  personal appeal to Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi to revive the proposed India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO), which is waiting for an ideal location.

With top scientists in the country pitching for locating the Neutrino observatory at Singara, near Mudumalai in the ecologically sensitive Nilgiris biosphere, Kakodkar too is reported to have made a personal appeal to Tamil Nadu chief minister when the two met in Chennai.

Reports, however, say that Karunanidhi was in no mood to go just by Kakodkar's briefing and instead pointed out public sentiments against such a project in an ecologically-sensitive area.

Karunadhi has cited opposition from environmentalists, forest officials and civil society at large in the Nilgiris bioshphere and said the government had the responsibility of addressing their reservations and was not in a position to take any hasty decision.

He also made it clear that the project could be approved only after convincing the locals and environmentalists on ways of locating the project at the proposed site without damaging the ecologically sensitive area.

The site runs through one of the prime elephant corridors and is in the periphery of the core tiger territory, the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve.