‘Termites, Seepage at JNU Lab Destroyed Yrs of PhD Research Work’

Video Editor: Abhishek Sharma
Video Producer: Maaz Hasan

Last week, years of hard work that we put in order to prepare our PhD thesis was destroyed by a termite infestation at Jawaharlal Nehru University’s TL/OSL Lab, simply because the administration and management were unable to take care of it during the lockdown period.

We, the students of Centre for the Study of Regional Development, the School of Social Sciences, are in the process of our PhDs in Palaeo Climatology, Geomorphology, and contemporary and past glacial dynamics.

In the month of March when the lockdown was announced, we were asked to leave the campus and even now, we are only allowed inside the campus because we wrote several times to the university seeking permission, as our submission dates are close.

This was the biggest shock of our lives. The walls of the lab had dampened and the roof was leaking.

A student had collected samples from high altitudes of the Himalayan range, another student brought samples from glaciers of the rivers. Everything is destroyed.

“This entire process has been a waste. Three years of work, three years of sweat, it’s all gone because of termites. This was completely avoidable.”

Elora Chakraborty, PhD Scholar, JNU

Scholars are not getting any scholarships for the moment, and fieldwork has high mental and financial costs. It is saddening that the university did not consider what is at stake.

Management is to Blame

This one-of-a-kind laboratory was set up in January 2016 to study the earth’s climatic past and present climate change while also predicting its future. Because of poor maintenance by the university administration, in just close to five years, the lab is in a crumbling condition.

Despite several requests to the management and written letters to the rector, the waste dumped around the lab and onto the roof never got removed.

Eventually, it contributed in destroying everything we had worked for.

“We have samples from Sikkim University, NEHU University, Sagar University, and Lucknow University. We are very scared and skeptical to open them because it’s their samples and we are answerable right now.”

Ishita Manna, PhD Scholar, JNU

We have been taking care of the lab ourselves, be it removing termites or weeds that grow on the roof. This is the responsibility of the university. But for these eight months, the lab has continued to be run-down. Who is responsible for this?

Shortly, after the story was published by The Quint on 10 December, JNU management started an inspection of the laboratory premises.

(The Quint has reached out to the VC and Rector of Jawaharlal Nehru University. Calls to the rector went unanswered. The response will be added when received.)

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