The Naval facility sought to be built in the Damagundam Reserve Forest is a Extremely Low Frequency (3 to 30 hertz) base station which will be used as a communication hub for submarines. India will be only the second country to use ELF for communication purposes after Russia. The other Indian Navy facility is at INS Kattabomman which became operational in 2014. The United States operated project ELF from 1989 to 2004 when it abandoned it in the face of massive opposition and better satellite communication.
The Wisconsin and Michigan transmitters at the American ELF facility were connected by 265 km underground cable. For each transmitter, a 14-mile long antenna strung up on hundreds of 40 feet poles across dozens of miles was created. The annual operating costs ran to $13 million. ELF transmission is one way and allowing only a few characters per minute
Russia has the facility called ZEVS in Kola Peninsula. The non-ionising radiation effect on fish, birds, animals and humans led to opposition
Five scientific studies conducted between 1995 and 1998 on ELF electric and magnetic field have established a link between occupational exposure to ELF and Alzheimer’s.
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