R. Ramachandran New Delhi: The government has decided against locating a Neutrino Observatory (INO), an underground experimental physics project, at Singara in the Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu. Instead, the Ministry of Environment and Forests has suggested that the project, proposed by the Department of Atomic Energy, be moved to a site near the Suruliyar falls in Theni district of Tamil Nadu. Suruliyar was one of the several sites considered by the scientists, but rejected as being inferior, compared to Singara. The INO is a major multi-institutional project, at the forefront of high-energy physics. It aims at addressing several fundamental unresolved questions in physics by studying elusive particles called neutrinos in a world class laboratory built underground. A large material overburden above an underground laboratory helps to stop all other contaminating particles and allows only the very weakly interacting neutrinos to arrive at the detector. In a letter to Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) Anil Kakodkar on Friday, Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh said that based on the report of Rajesh Gopal, Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) and Member-Secretary of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (MS-NTCA), the Ministry cannot give a go-ahead to Singara. After a discussion with key scientists connected to the project at the Ministry on September 4, the Minister instructed Dr. Gopal and other forest officials to visit the project site and submit a report. The visit took place on October 31. It was followed by a meeting with the scientists at the PCCF