Environment Ministry feels
radiation emitted by mobile towers has ill effects on
wildlife, especially birds and bees, and has asked the
Department of Telcommunication not to permit such structures
within one-km radius of each other.
In an advisory, the Ministry has said that there is an
"urgent need" to refine the Indian standard on safe limits of
exposure to electro-magnetic radiations (EMR).
Till it is reformed, "a precautionary approach shall be
preferred to minimise the exposure levels and adopt stricter
norms possible, without compromising on optimum performance of
the networks," it said.
It noted that the radiations could be be having varying
negative impact on wildlife, particularly birds and bees.
Accordingly, it asked the DoT to ensure that new mobile
towers are not constructed within one-km radius of the
existing ones "so as not to obstruct flight path of birds, and
also not to increase the combined radiations from all towers"
in the area.
"To prevent overlapping of high radiation fields, new
towers should not be permitted within a radius of one
kilometre of the existing towers. Sharing of passive
infrastructure if made mandatory for Telecom Service Providers
can minimise need of having additional towers," it said.
The Ministry asked the DoT that location and frequencies
of cellphone towers and other towers emitting EMR, should be
made available in public domain.
"This can be at city/district/village level. Location-
wise GIS mapping of all cellphone towers should be maintained
which would, inter alia, help in monitoring the population of
birds and bees in and around the mobile towers and also in
and/or around wildlife protection areas," the advisory said.
The advisory has been issued on the basis of an expert
committee study on the possible impacts of communication
towers on wildlife and bees. The panel was constituted by the
Environment Ministry in 2010.
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