An
Expert Committee to Study the possible Impacts of Communication Towers on
Wildlife including Birds and Bees was constituted by the Ministry of
Environment and Forests, Government of India on 30th August 2010. The report of the expert committee has been
submitted to the Ministry of Environment and Forests.
The
review of the available scientific information by the Expert Committee in the report indicates that the Electro-Magnetic Radiations (EMR)
interfere with the biological systems.
On the basis of the report of the
Expert Committee and subsequent deliberations with the stakeholders, a list of
actions to be undertaken by various agencies involved in providing, regulating,
and dealing in any other manner with, the EMR based services, has been prepared
Main objective of the listed actions is to avoid and mitigate the impacts of
EMR. The Ministry of Environment and
Forests accordingly has requested the concerned Departments, State Governments,
user agencies, and the public at large to take following actions:
Ministry of Environment and Forests:
The Electro Magnetic Radiations from the communication towers may have
varying negative impacts on wildlife especially birds and bees. Accordingly, the information on the impacts
related to different forms of wildlife as well as humans, should be provided to
the concerned agencies for regulating the norms for notification of standards for safe
limits of EMR taking into consideration the impacts on living beings.
State/Local Bodies:
1. Regular auditing and monitoring of EMR should be conducted in urban
localities/educational/hospital/industrial/residential/recreational premises
and especially around the Protected Areas (PAs) and ecologically sensitive
areas w.r.t. notified norms of Department of Telecommunications. Problematic towers from EMR point of view
should be got suitably relocated/removed.
2. Bold signs and messages on the dangers of cell phone towers and
associated radiations are displayed in and around the structures of the towers.
In addition to these signs, use of
visual daytime markers in areas of high diurnal raptor or waterfowl movements,
should also be promoted.
3. Before according permission for construction of towers, ecological
impact assessment and review of installation sites will be essential in
wildlife and/or ecologically important areas.
The Forest Department should be consulted before installation of cell
phone towers in and around Pas and zoos.
State Environment and Forest Departments:
1. Regular awareness drive with high level of visibility through all forms
of media, and in regional languages should be undertaken by the State Governments
and concerned
Departments to make people aware about various norms and
standards with regard to cell phone towers and dangers of EMR from the
same. Such notices should also be placed
in all wildlife protected areas and zoos by the Forest Department.
Department of Telecommunications:
1. To prevent overlapping of high radiation fields, new towers should not be
permitted within a radius of one kilometre of the
existing towers. Sharing of passive
infrastructure if made mandatory for Telecom Service Providers can minimize
need of having additional towers. If new
towers must be built, these should be constructed with utmost care and precautions
so as not to obstruct flight path of birds, and also not to increase the
combined radiations from all towers in the area.
2. The location and frequencies of cell phone towers and other towers
emitting EMR, should be made available in public domain. This can be at city/district/village
level. Location-wise GIS mapping of all
cell phone towers should be maintained which would, inter alia, help in
monitoring the population of birds and bees in and around the mobile towers and
also in and/or around wildlife protected areas.
3. There is an urgent need to refine the Indian standard on safe limits of
exposure to EMR, keeping in view the available literature on impacts on various
life forms. Till such time the Indian
standards are reformed, a precautionary approach shall be preferred to minimize
the exposure levels and adopt stricter norms possible, without compromising on
optimum performance of the networks.
All concerned agencies:
1. Security lighting for on-ground
facilities should be minimized, and as far as possible, point downwards or be
down-shielded to avoid bird hits.
2. Any study conducted on impact of EMF radiation on wildlife needs to be
shared with Forest Department and Department of Telecommunications to
facilitate appropriate policy formulations.
MC/ls