CHENNAI: India has wasted the advantage and the opportunity to be ahead of the rest of the world in neutrino research, said theoretical physicist Atish

on Tuesday.

On the sidelines of a lecture, the scientist known for his research in superstring theory quantum gravity and quantum properties of black holes, said that the country would have been the first or the only one to initiate a neutrino experiment, had it started the India-based Neutrino Observatory a decade ago. Protests by environment groups and some politicians have delayed the project which was to come up in Theni.

“India certainly had, 10 years ago, a window of opportunity when we were ahead of the rest of the world. We had charge discrimination and mass hierarchy. It’s not easy to find an experiment where India has an advantage, but we wasted it,” said Dabholkar who heads the high energy, cosmology and astroparticle physics section at the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, Italy.

“We have lost the race a little bit, but it is still a worthwhile project. India will gain a lot of expertise, knowledge, know-how and technology. It’s not too late but this cannot go on for the next 20 years, because then it’ll be a real disappointment.”

He was in the city to deliver a lecture on ‘science and superstition’, organised by the Tamil Nadu Science Forum. His lecture came at a time when scientists in the country condemned the ‘irrational and unscientific claims’ made by two scientists at the Indian Science Congress.

Calling the claims made at the science congress “very disappointing”, Dabholkar said that the event is not prestigious any more. The physicist also said that such claims have discouraged scientists from participating in the event, as he recalled how Nobel Laureate Venkatraman Ramakrishnan publicly condemned the claims and refused to attend the congress ever again “If you tell someone you gave a lecture at Princeton, then it’s a good thing. But if you tell them you presented a paper at the Indian Science Congress, they’ll ask me if I am in the same league as this other person. So, it’s actually embarrassing,” he said.

The physicist also threw some light on the Anti-Superstition and Black Magic Act for which activist Narendra Dabholkar, Atish Dabholkar’s uncle, fought to put the legislation in place in Maharashtra.