Podcast: Nobel Laureates, scientists appeal to Stalin on Neutrino Observatory in TN

The 900-crore India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO), set to come up in Tamil Nadu’s Theni district, is aimed at building a world-class underground laboratory to study fundamental issues in science. The project has run into rough weather with green activists and a few political parties opposing it.

The proposal for INO was initiated two decades ago by Indian High Energy physics researchers. The motivation was purely academic and not commercial and was part of the Indian scientific community’s sincere ongoing attempts at developing a deeper understanding of nature. But activsts have been opposing the project, saying “the project will affect the health of people” and the “tunnel-boring process could affect the safety of the 100-year-old Mullaperiyar Dam”  —  a claim repatedly refuted and rejected by the scientific community. Even the late APJ Abdul Kalam (former President and eminent scientist) wrote many articles elucidating the project’s positives, even for rural areas.

The project is awaiting the Tamil Nadu government’s go-ahead despite stiff opposition from many quarters.

We spoke to Prof (retired) T R Govindarajan, Institute of Mathematical Sciences and former adjunct professor at the Chennai Mathematical Institute, who has joined a group of stalwarts from the world of science to make an earnest appeal to Chief Minister M K Stalin.