Prof.  Gobinda  Majumder, Project  Director,  Pottipuram Research Center, Tata  Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai has issued the following statement :

“Some media channels have reported that a scrutiny of the proposal by the Environment and Forest Department of Tamil Nadu revealed that the construction site spread over 31.45 hectares was falling inside the Mathikettan-Periyar tiger corridor.  We wish to correct this statement. The extent of land for the project comprises 26.825 Ha of revenue land above ground  and 4.62 Ha of land underground  comprising the  tunnels  and lab caverns.  It is to be noted that the surface facilities are purely restricted to the  26.825 Ha of revenue land and lie completely outside the adjoining Reserve Forest (RF); hence there will be no disturbance to the reserve forest or tiger corridor from surface facilities.

Of the 4.62 Ha of underground construction, it is clarified that the tunnel entrance (portal) begins in revenue land and the HORIZONTAL tunnel (just like a railway tunnel) is several 10s of m deep before it enters the forest land.  The tiger corridor lies completely within the forest land.  Hence there will be no obstruction to tiger (or any large animal) movement on the forest surface since there will be no activity on forest land.  The only activity will be deep under the forest (from 10s of m to 1000 m underground). Note that about 3 Ha of the 4.62 Ha forest land will overlap with the demarcation of the tiger corridor above ground.   Again, we highlight that the diversion of forest land is notional and there will never be any construction or activity in forest land, only deep under it.

We reiterate that PtRC is committed to building a model project with no damage to the environment, no displacement or obstruction to local people and their daily activities, no radioactivity or toxic emissions.  We believe that such a project will be an opportunity for students in Tamil Nadu and other parts  of India to work on cutting  edge technology in a world-class project.”

This is stated in a press release issued by  Smt Jalaja Madan Mohan, Head TCPAS, RESD, HSEG, SQRMG, IGCAR, 26,Haddows Road, Shastri Bhavan, Chennai 600006.

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