The residents of villages surrounding Ambarappar Hills in Theni district, where the neutrino project is proposed to come up, have written an open letter to the scientists who expressed their support to the project.
In the letter, the residents said their ‘pastoral land’ had been handed over for the project without their consent.
Last month, a number of scientists appealed to the Tamil Nadu government to support the project. “You would by now be aware that the project has acquired some forest land and quite a chunk of poromboke pastoral lands. These are the lands that were used by us since time immemorial, fulfilling the pastoral needs of the cattle that we depend on for our livelihood,” they said. “As forest dwelling communities, we have all the rights over this piece of land,” the villagers said.
They said the State Environment Assessment Committee (SEAC) rejected the project proposal submitted by the Indian Neutrino Observatory for a number of reasons. “The SEAC in general is of the view that the Western Ghats is a global biodiversity hotspot and a treasure trove of biological diversity. Also, the proposed site forms part of the catchment area of various streams and streamlets and ultimately contributes to the Vaigai watershed, which provides life support and livelihood to the dependent communities by providing water for drinking and agricultural needs in five districts of Tamil Nadu,” they said.
‘Share EIA’
Responding to the letter written by the scientists, the villagers said , “Respected Sirs, may we kindly request you to share the ‘Privileged EIA’ that has studied the impact of blasting on the environment with us.”
“The Ambarappar Hills is our deity and we have an enduring mystical connection with thousands and thousands of forest deities who we believe are protecting us from natural disasters,” the villagers said, adding that they inherited these rights from their forefathers.
The full-text of the letter
“An Open letter to the scientists” who have expressed their support to the Neutrino Project:
Sirs,
We the ordinary citizens of this country have come to know about an appeal that the renowned scientists including few Nobel Laureates have made to us. We understand that the appeal seeks to educate us on the ‘importance of the INO project and the prosperity it would bring for us.’
Sirs, with due respect to your academic accomplishments, we would like to ask you a few questions.
1. Do you know that the “State Expert Appraisal Committee ” (SEAC) report has rejected the Project Proposal submitted by INO for the following reason? It speaks in details about the place that the project is being set up. We would like to bring it to your notice.
a. The tunnelling work involves carrying out blasting in hard and composite rock mass and requires huge quantity of high strength explosives to break it. Further, the tunnelling work involves the excavation of 600000 cubic metre of Charnockite rock from the mountain.
b. The tunnel and Cavern will be at the depth of 1000 m from the top of the Mountain. At the depth of 1485 m, mountain rock would be under tremendous pressure and the vertical stress is expected to be greater than 270 kilogram per metre square. This will create problems like Rock bust and roof collapse. The proposals of the PP regarding the safeguards will have to be scrutinized using the Geo-technical studies
c. The SEAC in general is of the view that the Western Ghats is a global biodiversity hotspots and treasure trove of biological diversity. It harbours many endemic species of flowering plants and endemic fishes and amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals and invertebrates and it also an important centre of evolution of economically important domesticated plant species.
d. Also the proposed site forms part of catchment of various streams and streamlet's and ultimately contribute to the Vaigai watershed which forms life support and livelihood of the dependent communities by providing water for drinking and agricultural need in 5 districts of Tamil Nadu.
From the above, it is evident that the environment around the proposed site will have to bear the impact of this project. Also the so-called Environment Impact Assessment report done by the Un-accredited agency “SACON”, clearly states that “ Blasting is known to cause vibrations and serious damage to close-by landscape and may have impact on the geological make-up / formation in the surroundings, a subject not under the scope of the present report.
As scientists of acclaim, you would have certainly got access to some Privileged EIA reports that are yet to be shared with lesser mortals like us. We somehow feel that without that, scientists of your stature would not have come out openly in support of this project. Respected Sirs, may we kindly request you to share the “Privileged EIA” that has studied the impact of blasting on the environment with us too. We request you to help us get enlightened by sharing the report with us. After all, we are sure you would agree enlightenment is not the privilege of few.
2. Also Sirs, you would by now be aware that the project has acquired some forest land and quite a chunk of “Poromboke Pastoral lands”. These are the lands that were used by us since time immemorial, fulfilling the Pastoral needs of the cattle that we depend on for our livelihood. As forest dwelling communities, we have all the rights over this piece of land. Our “Pastoral Land” was handed over for the project purposes without even getting consent from us through Gram Sabhas.
3. The Project is going to consume about 3,50,000 litres of water from our “Mullai Periyar” dam. Tamil Nadu, especially the people of 5 districts have to literally come-out in lakhs and lakhs to save our rights in Mullai Periyar, by proving in the Supreme court that MullaiPeriyar is Strong and Safe.
4. Do you know Sirs, we have been asking our Government to give drinking water to the villages surrounding the project site? The Government refused saying that the elevation of the said villages are much higher, so it would be difficult for them to supply us drinking water. But now, for this project, at a much higher elevation than the surrounding villages, the Govt is supplying the said quantity of water daily. So what do you want us to infer from this? Have you ever come to stand by our side when we fought for a very basic necessity like drinking water?
5. The scientists working for this project have had this habit of saying different things at different places. This has created complete disillusionment among people who live in this area. We would be grateful if you could advise them that the “Primary focus” in science should be Openness & Transparency.
6. The Amparappar hills is our deity, it is our GOD and we have an Enduring Mystical connection with thousands and thousands of forest deities who we believe are still protecting us from various natural disasters. This is our Cultural & Traditional rights that we have inherited from our Fore-fathers. We cannot compromise that Cultural & Traditional right to whomsoever it may be to whichever may be the purpose. The Government that gave you the awards of national Honour stopped the Sethu Samudram Shipping Canal Project, citing the Traditional Structure, supposedly built by Lord RAMA”. Our deity Ambarappar is to us to what Lord Rama is to them.
7. Sir, last but not the least, one of the possible use of this project, as we read from Dr. Abdul Kalam, Mr. Rajasekaran, a scientist with IIMSc that this could be used to de-commission Nuclear Bombs at different locations. Sir, we are peace-loving, simple, humble and modest people who always believe that Forests, Mountains, streams, rivers and may other natural landscapes are important to us, we will not allow any project that “may be used to destroy Nuclear Bombs” in our area.
We follow the ideals of Peace and Non-Violence and fundamentally still we believe that India is a democracy. We sincerely hope you believe in the democratic structure of our country to. We hope you will realise the injustice in forcing us to accept a project that is being pushed down our throats without even conducting a Public-hearing?
Unlike scientists like you, whose vision is to explore the unexplored areas of science, all we hope to do is to save our Western Ghats. We believe the ordinary people who consider the mountains, rivers, forests, streams as sacred and holy are also allowed to live peacefully in this democracy.
We people of theni district wish you all the scientists to have a long and meaningful life
Lovingly Yours
Villages surrounding the ambarappar hills.
