Will The Paradise Be Saved For Mudumalai Animals

It was another pleasant breezy evening of one of my ending days in college.Me and couple of my friends were heading towards prize distribution ceremony of my friend Balaganapathy's for Photography ,conducted by the nature club.The program started as usual with the astounding Anthem of our college.After that,One by one all the distinguished guest started delivering their speeches ,which bored enough of me to go far a small nap.Suddenly,I was woken up by the big applause for The chief guest Mr P. C. Tyagi I.F.S, Additional Director and Conservator of Forests, Tamil Nadu Forest Academy, Coimbatore.He didn't spoke much about photography .Instead,He had spoken something interesting and amazing about forest conservation,endangered species of animals,Tiger poaching and loads of data about Tamil Nadu forestry.As I always have a passion towards wild animals.It was like a 1hr Discovery channel program to me.Though it had been interesting ,I wonder ,why he was telling about all these facts in a prize giving ceremony.At last he landed where he want to be.Actually,He was in the middle of the anti-campaign against one of the most disastrous Incident going to happen in the Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary.The threat came in the form a big science project to be built under the core buffer area of Singara tiger reserve ,just outside the Mudumalai wildlife sanctuary.The project is all about the construction of an India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) ,which is all set to wipe out nature.He told many facts and figures of the project and their impact on the ecosystem.His nerve bursting speech , concern for wildlife and ecosystem,encouraged me to write this article.

Neutrinosare the smallest particle ,which will be helpful in understanding of the formation universe.The Study of these particles will lead to many unimaginable discoveries in physics and It will be a pride to our nation.The project worths over 900 crores ,involves some of the leading scientific organisations of India such as Tata Institute of Fundamental Research,Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, IIT Mumbai, Institute of Mathematical Sciences.The observatory is about to build under the earth of about 1km deep.

To do so....

* 450 tons of explosives will be used to dug the 2.3km long tunnel with a cavern at the end of the tunnel.which quite enough to disturb the habitat of wild animals in the reserve

* 2,25,000 cubic meters of earth will be expelled to make the land filthy.


*52,000 tons of sand, 17,000 tons of steel and over 100,000 tons of
jelly and 100,000 tons of steel would be needed for contruction.

* 300,000 tons of material will be transported through this two Tiger
Reserves Mudumalai and Bandipur, an important corridor between Masinagudi and Singara.Equivalent of one 10 ton truck passing through these Tiger Reserves every 15 minutes for 10 hours daily, for two years and one month.There are always a few victims peacocks, deer, small game and even occasionally a leopard hit by a speeding truck, bus or car.


All these datas are proposed one.As project proceeds requirements will change over time.The damage was already made by PUSHEP (Pykara Ultimate Stage Hydro Electric Project)of Tamil Nadu government at Masinagudi and It has grown from a village of a few hundred people to a town of 10,000 because of this power station.PUSHPEP was underway, quarry muck was dumped into the important forest water resource for animals,the Karimar water hole, which flows into Moyar river.Making the water impotable for the animals.There has bees a huge loss of indigenous fish and other aquatic species on this stretch of the river is reported and the entire impact of the project on the acquatic fauna is still not known entirely.

Why Singara? is the question strikes in everybody.The reason is, Neutrinos are sub-atomic particles and can pass undisturbed through any matter and are very difficult to detect.In an underground laboratory, rocks can block their movement and that is the reason why Sinagra was chosen as the site has dense granite underneath its forests and has easy access to Mysore about 90 km and Coimbatore 100 km.


It Sounds perfect and good enough to build the project.But this needs to be considered that the road cuts right through a very important wildlife corridor, the Kallamalai-Singara-Avarahalla corridor, used by wild animals to move between the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve and the Segur plateau and the Eastern Ghats. With 25% of Asian Elephant population and stable Tiger numbers, Mudumalai is internationally
recognised for its wildlife.

The war has began between Environmentalists and Scientists.But,the decision is all upto the Tamil Nadu forest department to save the lifes of wild animals and ecological imbalance.Will they save ....???????????