Recently, the UT Administration had taken a decision that mobile towers could only be installed in non-residential institutional premises, include educational institutes.

Panjab University earns around Rs 2 lakh per month as rent from the four cellular towers and every tower caters to a different service provider.

The Director of the Centre for Environmental Studies, Dr R K Kohli, said, “The electromagnetic radiations from the towers generate heat. Due to this, micro organisms present in the soil near it would be killed. This in turn harms those organisms which feed on them and it disturbs the ecological cycle.”

“People say the number of sparrows, butterflies and insects of various types are decreasing gradually. It is one of the side effects of the rays from the mobile towers. There is no concrete study that we have conducted to determine the effect on human beings but certain symptoms like forgetfulness, anxiety, etc., can be attributed to the rays from the towers. While using mobiles we may harm ourselves, but mobile towers harm even those who are not mobile users,” he added.

A study has also been conducted by three departments of PU, which has found that cellular towers are the dominating source of electromagnetic radiation in the city environment and this could lead to diseases in plants and animals.