India-based Neutrino Observatory
[2][3][4] The project was originally intended to be completed in 2015 at an estimated cost of ₹15,000,000,000 (₹15 billion or US$209.7 million), has been cleared by the Ministry of Environment for construction in the Bodi West Hills Reserved Forest in the Theni district of Tamil Nadu.
The Neutrino 2001 meeting was held in the Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai during February 2001 with the explicit objective of bringing the experimentalists and theorists in this field together.
The first formal meeting of the collaboration was held in the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, during 6 and 7 September 2001 at which various subgroups were formed for studying the detector options and electronics, physics goals and simulations, and site survey.
As a result of the support received from various research institutes, universities, the scientific community and the funding agency, the Department of Atomic Energy, a Neutrino Collaboration Group (NCG) was established to study the possibility of building an India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO).
A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed by the directors of the participating institutes on August 30, 2002, to enable a smooth functioning of the NCG during the feasibility period.
[2] On 20 November 2009, Ministry of Environment (India) Minister Jairam Ramesh in a letter to Anil Kakodkar, Secretary, Department of Atomic Energy and chairman, Atomic Energy Commission of India, denied permission for the Department of Atomic Energy to set up the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) project at Singara in Nilgiris, as it falls in the buffer zone of the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR).
As of February 2012, the land was allocated to the INO collaboration by the government of Tamil Nadu and the excavation work was about to start.
On 5 January 2015, Union Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved to set up the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO).
[17] On 20 February 2015, The southern bench of National Green Tribunal ordered notices to the central and state governments on a petition challenging the environmental clearance granted to the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) project.
[18] On 26 March 2015, The Madurai bench of the Madras high court restrained the central government from commencing the work on the proposed India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO).
The court directed the government to get permission from the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) before commencing the work.
[20] Throughout this process, villagers in the Pottipuram Panchayat have been agitating against the proposed observatory under the banner of Poovulagin Nanbargal (Friends of the earth).
A spokesman for the organization expressed concern over the lakhs of tons of rock that would be blasted inside the mountain to create the observatory, which had the potential for groundquakes.
[21] In January 2020 villagers in Pottipuram passed a resolution against building the INO in their area, citing the potential for ecological damage to Western Ghats.
The plans for the facility and experimental apparatus have been made, and a site for the realization of the project has been chosen, and a budget has been proposed, but getting permission to start actual building at the chosen site in Pottipuram village in Tamil Nadu state has not succeeded, with opposition from the local villagers, government officials and most notably, environmentalists and government environment agencies; the environment agencies' approval is needed for the construction to start.
Stalin met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and suggested the INO project be shelved or shifted elsewhere.
