Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin has opposed India based Neutrino Observatory Project planned at Theni claiming that the project would adversely impact the ecosystem in that region. 

On Monday he wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in this regard and requested him to intervene in the matter and scrap the project. 

The DMK chief asked the Prime Minister to intervene and cancel the Neutrino Observatory Project, saying that it would harm the local ecosystem and tiger movement in the area. In his letter he says the proposed project location at Pottipuram village in Tamil Nadu's Theni district falls within the Mathikettan-Periyar tiger corridor, as mapped by the National Tiger Conservation Authority, and that if the project is carried out, it may 'destroy' the corridor's genetic flow.

Stalin's letter went on to say that the State Environmental Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) on November 27, 2017 had pointed out that the tunnel construction will include blasting the hard rock with high explosives and removing massive quantities of rock from the mountain.

The tunnel will be almost 1000 m below the mountain's summit, creating significant pressure and risking rock burst and roof collapse. Since the project site is adjacent to the Western Ghats, it may have an adverse impact on the area's biodiversity. The project site is a major water catchment basin for the Sambal and Kotakudi rivers.

Stalin recalled that in September 2021, a ministerial delegation from the state met with Union Minister Piyush Goyal in this regard, stating the expressed aforementioned concerns and urging that the project be scrapped.

Stalin requested that the Prime Minister intervene in this issue and stop the Neutrino Observatory project.
Tamil Nadu has been opposing this project, but scientists, physicists; mathematicians have been asking the state government not to hinder the project as this would Tamil Nadu in the global map of advanced scientific research.