Panel on mob tower threat to birds, bees to examine studies

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Experts' Committee set up by the Union environment ministry to study the impact of communication towers on birds and bees has decided to elicit views of researchers who have already done studies on the problem in India and abroad.

The panel headed by Asad Rahmani,Director of Bomaby Natural History Society, which had its first meeting in New Delhi a fortnight back, voiced concern over the depletion of house sparrow and collapse of bee colonies in India and abroad, one major cause for which is believed be have been mushrooming of mobile tele towers.

According to sources in the committee, some members on it the government to be asked straight away to bring in certain regulations on erecting mobile phone towers in thickly popoulated areas and encourage sharing of towers by more than one service provider.

However, the majority view was that that conclusions could be drawn up after studying the issue in detail and examining the studies conducted by experts in India and other countries.

The existing studies on the issue included that of Kerala- based Prof Sainudeen Pattazhy, who argued that electromagnetic waves emitted by towers hampered navigational skills of worker bees, leading to a phenomenon called Colony Collapse Syndrome (CCS), reported from worldover.

Patazhy, whose study elicited keen worldwide interest, is one of the members on the experts' panel.

This problem has been reported from all over the world in the last few years, prompting campaigners to lobby for greater controls in giving permission for telecom companies to set up mobile towers.