INDIAN NEUTRINO OBSERVATORY

INDIAN NEUTRINO OBSERVATORY

TOPIC: Science & Tech

Context- The Tamil Nadu government filed an affidavit in the apex court stating the INO project at Bodi West Hills in Theni would cause irreparable damage to the Western Ghats

Concept-

• The project, if implemented, will affect the flora and fauna of the Periyar Tiger Reserve and Mathikettan Shola National Park in the Western Ghats — which have earned global reputation for effective conservation — the affidavit claimed.

What is a neutrino?

• Neutrinos are the smallest particles that form the universe.
• Neutrinos which are elementary particles have no charge and almost no mass and therefore do not affect anything they pass through.
• They are naturally produced in the atmosphere of the Earth and are present around us at all times, causing no damage.

About Indian Neutrino Observatory:

• INO Project is a multi-institutional effort aimed at building a world-class underground laboratory with a rock cover of approx. 1200 m for non-accelerator based high energy and nuclear physics research in India.
• The proposed site is spread across Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
• It is funded by Dept. of Atomic Energy (DAE) and the Dept. of Science and Technology (DST).
• Objectives: INO will observe neutrinos and antineutrinos produced in the atmosphere of the Earth.
  • This observation will tell us more about the properties of neutrino particles, whose main source is the Sun and the Earth’s atmosphere.
• The project includes:
  • Underground laboratory and associated surface facilities at Bodi West Hills.
  • Construction of a magnetized Iron Calorimeter (ICAL) detector for studying neutrinos. When completed, ICAL will have the world’s largest magnet.
  • Setting up Inter Institutional Centre for High Energy Physics (IICHEP) at Madurai

What’s special about locating the INO in the South?

• A project report says most of the neutrino detectors are at latitudes over 35 deg.
• It is possible to push such a detector down to almost 8 deg latitude in South India, within proximity to the Equator.
• This permits neutrino astronomy searches covering the whole celestial sky and study of solar neutrinos passing through the Earth’s core.

Periyar Tiger Reserve:

• It falls in the districts of Idukki and Pathanamthitta in Kerala (southern region of Western Ghats).
• Declared a Sanctuary during 1950 and Tiger Reserve in 1978.
• It gets its name from the River Periyar which has its origin deep inside the reserve.

Mathikettan Shola National Park:

• Mathikettan Shola National Park is a national park in Poopara village in Idukki district of Kerala.
• Considering the unique nature of the shola forest in Mathikettan and its importance as an elephant strip, the state government has declared it as a National park in 2008.