THE HINDU Editorial Vocabulary - March 20, 2018 - Topic 2

Bending the rules — on nod for Neutrino project

A year after the National Green Tribunal suspended the environmental clearance granted to the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO), the Expert Appraisal Committee (Infra 2) of the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change has overturned the NGT verdict and granted environmental clearance for the project. The observatory, which is to come up in Bodi West Hills in Theni district, Tamil Nadu, is regarded as a symbol not just of India’s push for research in particle physics; it also signals the intent to nurture centres of excellence.

Neutrinos are subatomic particles that are extremely difficult to detect. The laboratory cavern will be located 1,300 metres underground, with an access tunnel. The rock cover is necessary to minimise the naturally occurring cosmic ray backdrop. The project has become controversial on environmental grounds, given the proposed site’s proximity to the Mathikettan Shola National Park in Kerala’s Western Ghats, a global biodiversity hotspot. However, considering the project’s national importance, the Environment Ministry had taken up the proposal for clearance as a “special case”. The green signal is conditional on getting the consent of the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board and the National Board for Wildlife. Despite the 17 conditions laid down by the Expert Committee while granting approval, the manner in which the clearance was granted leaves much to be desired.

The project has been approved under category B item 8(a) — building and construction projects — of the Schedule to the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification, 2006. But it should have been treated as category A as the project lies just 4.9 km from the national park in Idukki district of Kerala. The NGT had ruled that it was indeed a category A project and the Tamil Nadu State expert appraisal committee also noted that it could not be appraised under category B 8(a) as tunnelling and other activities went beyond the scope of the section. According to the 2006 notification, projects or activities that come under category A require “prior environmental clearance” from the Environment Ministry. Side-stepping the EIA requirement on technical grounds both by the project proponents and the Ministry is surely not the ideal way to go about such matters. For one, the EIA was done by the Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History, which is an “unaccredited agency”. And though a public consultation with local people who have a “plausible stake” in the project was conducted in July 2010, the details of the meeting were submitted only by the end of February 2018. The importance of the project notwithstanding, treating it as a special case and bypassing the environmental clearance protocol sets a wrong precedent.

Vocabulary

Appraisal: an act of assessing something or someone.

Example: Treatment begins with a thorough appraisal of the patient's condition

Synonyms: assessment, evaluation, estimation, judgment, rating

Overturne: abolish, invalidate, or reverse a previous system, decision, situation, etc.

Example: The results overturned previous findings

Synonyms: cancel, reverse, rescind, repeal, revoke, retract

Regard: consider or think of something in a specified way.

Example: She regarded Omaha as her base

Synonyms: consider, look on, view, see, think of, judge, deem

Antonyms: alienation, animosity, antipathy, aversion, coolness

Detect: discover or identify the presence or existence of.

Example: Cancer may soon be detected in its earliest stages

Synonyms: ascertain, descry, discern, disclose, discover

Excellence: the quality of being outstanding or extremely good.

Example: The award for excellence in engineering

Synonyms: distinction, quality, superiority, brilliance, greatness, merit

Controversial: giving rise or likely to give rise to public disagreement.

Example: Years of wrangling over a controversial bypass

Synonyms: contentious, disputed, at issue, disputable, debatable

Antonyms: unchallenged, stipulatory, unquestioned, uncontroversial

Importance: the state or fact of being of great significance or value.

Example: The importance of democracy

Synonyms: significance, momentousness, import, consequence

Antonyms: unimportance

Proximity: nearness in space, time, or relationship.

Example: Do not operate microphones in close proximity to television sets

Synonyms: closeness, nearness, propinquity, accessibility, handiness

Clearance: clear space allowed for a thing to move past or under another.

Example: Always give cyclists plenty of clearance

Synonyms: space, room, room to spare, margin, leeway

Indeed: used to emphasize a statement or response confirming something already suggested.

Example: It was not expected to last long, and indeed it took less than three weeks

Synonyms: as expected, to be sure, in fact, in point of fact

Appraised: assess the value or quality of.

Example: She stealthily appraised him in a pocket mirror

Synonyms: assess, evaluate, judge, rate, gauge, review, consider, size up

Unaccredited: not recognized as having attained an acceptable standard.

Example: A mail-order degree from an unaccredited correspondence school

Synonyms: unlicensed,  unlicenced

Antonyms: authorized, authorised

Bypass: go past or around.

Example: Bypass the farm and continue to the road

Synonyms: go around, go past, make a detour around, avoid

Precedent: an earlier event or action that is regarded as an example or guide to be considered in subsequent similar circumstances.

Example: There are substantial precedents for using interactive media in training

Synonyms: model, exemplar, example, pattern, prior instance/example

Antonyms: succeeding