Isn’t it putting the cart before the horse? The advisory from the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests to the States about the erection of cell-phone towers in areas close to the wild life sanctuaries, public institutions, dense forests and urban habitats has come only after the towers have been erected. Should it not have come before permission was granted for their erection? Is electro-magnetic radiation a new theory of which the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests was not aware previously? Adverse impact of innumerable cell towers raised in the State emanating electro-magnetic radiation on birds and bees is already manifesting. We don’t find many birds and bees in the air now as in olden days. The impact on wild life is yet to be ascertained. Undoubtedly, impact on human beings and animals in areas where cell-towers stand close to the habitats is also to be studied. Knowing that these towers emanate radiation, the providers should have been asked to combine the infrastructure to reduce the need of each provider erecting its towers. We find that the Union Ministry as well as the Sate Governments have taken things easy and allowed the towers to come up without careful study of the impact of electro-magnetic radiation and the ways and means to protect life from its adverse impact.
Now that the system is in place, it is still worth considering how the impact of electromagnetic radiation can be reduced. The advisory is useful for new installations and should be strictly adhered to. Service providers should be persuaded to combine their services so that the need of erecting more towers is reduced maximally. Among precautionary measures one is of disseminating knowledge about possible radiation and the ways it can be neutralized. Awareness campaign should become widespread among student community and other sections of civil society. Our ecology is under stress as a result of economic development and the cell-towers are adding to the stress. This has to be taken care of.
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