 This is where our samples used to be. This is whatever we could take off and these are the remnants of it. Various samples were in different stages of processing. Some we had just started. The older samples which had been collected since 2015 had almost reached their last level of checking for their signals. And within this eight months, everything is gone. So a lot of five PhD scholars, I can say, have lost their work. Years, years of work. This is our lab, TL OASL lab. It was built in 2016. A lot of the men had been made by our professors. So this is the only lab in India. And this is the only one in Delhi. So this is a very important lab in this field, earlier in the climate. So we use this for TASL, TL OASL, I mean luminescence dating. This lab essentially belongs to CSRD, which is in the School of Social Sciences. You never find a lab which is so neglected in the entire of JNU. Look at this, like we clean this out by ourselves. And since then, nobody has even made the effort of removing all of this. And these have destroyed samples which we have unfortunately had to throw away after years of processing. I mean, this is it. Like, you know, I couldn't have pictures, do speak more than words. Ever since we made the lab, the C-page in the wall in this lab has been damaged a lot. I mean, we have already requested to repair it. But no reply has been received. And during the lockdown, forcefully we were sent home. After that, we were not allowed to write again and again. So because of the damage, there was no one to take care of it. So the damage was so much. And the samples in it were almost destroyed. And our JNU students also had samples of us. And we also used the universities outside. We have been writing mails since 2015. My professor has been writing mails. We have the records of all of the mails, but just people did not answer at all. I was about to start my OSL sample processing back in March, but then we were notified by the university to go back home. And now it has been over eight months and we still have no access to the lab. Some of my friends, they have sent pictures to me stating the present condition of the lab, the fatal and it has met due to no maintenance at all. I had a complete breakdown because I am a finally a PhD student who is supposed to submit in a few months. After seeing this, I don't see my work going any further. I don't see any timely submission of my thesis to which I have given years of my life. A magnetic separator which separates different constituent materials of a particular sediment. So this we have had to repair on our own because it started rusting because of obvious reasons. If they're not going to answer to our questions, then I don't know what to do. My work is on reconstructing glacial phases and paleo environment in the part of Upper Bias Basin, which is near Solang Valley. So basically what we do is try to reconstruct how the environment or the climate was in the past based on the glacial advances. And for that reason, we need to understand the morphology of the place and from understanding the morphology, we collect the samples. We collect soil samples, we collect rock samples and also we try to collect some carbon samples. And the biggest thing that has the most damage is that the samples that they had were very rare samples. You can't retrieve them now. These samples are above 5000-4000 m height in Himalaya. So it takes a lot of logistical effort to go there. There is a lot of difficult terrain, there is a lot of risk. And a lot of money is needed for that. So I don't know who will be able to fill out the loss and for whom we are becoming accountable. This lab was set up as a part of a consortium where four universities were involved. And it was funded by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. So the entire purpose of this lab was to facilitate dating facilities. In March, I left the campus because I was actually forced to leave the campus. Wardens came to my room, wardens and all the security came to my room and they insisted that you leave the campus, mess is going to get closed and no one is going to be there. This is the negligence of the CIRFORCIP JNU administration that has brought our lab to this state. Because after the lockdown, they have made a distinction that we will allow the science students to go to the lab and not to the social sciences. So the nature of our geography study is interdisciplinary. So they have not allowed us to request again and again. And if we go and see now, everything is almost ruined. Who will repair it now? No clear cut reply is coming. So with my own pay, whatever money I was left with my scholarship, I started renting a place. I started buying food which cost me around 15,000 per month. And I waited. I waited till November but writing every day and everything but no one responded. After that, they didn't insist it. And then finally in November, when my slot in IUSC was getting over, I was very desperate. I was in desperate need. So I tried to come in but naturally I couldn't. In December, I just snuck inside the campus with my... Yeah, literally I snuck inside the campus. I was caught by my burdens and everything. Anyways, I said I have to stay. I can't go out. I don't have a place. So they were a little bit sympathetic at that time and they let me stay in my room. When I come inside, the next day when I try to find my samples, I can't find them. So I started cleaning the... Like I started cleaning the lab because there was no maintenance. So when this lockdown was going on, time and again, we had been writing letters to our... I wrote to my chairperson seeking permission that please let me access the lab. But I did not receive a reply. My senior did receive a reply from the registrar where he denied her permission to come in. So there is obviously this science, non-science, artificial non-science, science binary that these people have been playing on. But it's very unfortunate because it's us students who are having to lose it. Our years of research. We have had samples from various different places from Birbal's Honey Institute of Paleoclimat. And we have had samples from us. So like our own thesis samples, they are lost. Four years of processing which we have done. We have been going to the field in the midst of flash floods. Sometimes we can't go to the field. Sometimes we go to the field and bring down the samples. And you don't even know whether your samples are safe inside a lab within JNU. So there's a lot riding on it. Like I do not know whether the administration are aware of the fact that we're not passing our time here. We're doing serious work. And this is about high time you take cognizance of the fact. So when I came back I saw like all is wasted except the rock samples. So right now I have like the pre-processing I told about CRN samples. You can do that in our lab also because it doesn't need because we have all the facilities here. So right now I have to go every day spending my money 60 rupees up, 60 rupees down, 120 rupees plus lunch there and everything. I have to spend money there just because this process takes two months. So that students don't have to face this difficulty in this university. That's why this facility was done here and now we can't use that. And we are again spending money. My scholarship I haven't received it. When I had put in the applications in September I haven't received it. And I was supposed to get money from last November. So I have no money. And then they will then warden comes to my room and like you are from other like you are not from science student. I'm like my lab gets destroyed then what do you expect me to do? You expect me to stay outside? What do you expect? We could probably like take a look inside where we can see some of the effects of the seepage that we are talking about which has taken off the split AC. We run our machine. It's called the Lexic Smart Machine. We date sediments in this machine. We generally have gone as far back until the Quaternary period. But yeah it's extremely useful in studies of the Paleoclimate. I mean the Earth's past climate. And as well as for archaeology. In this lab we basically did processing for three different kind of tests which is exposure dating. Optically stimulated luminescence. And the third one was that we also did sample preparation for AMS dating which is radiocarbon as well. But unfortunately our center CSRD is under social sciences. When the JNU administration had allowed all the science scholars to come and use their labs they did not allow us. So what has happened is that previously we students we were taking care of the lab by ourselves. We were doing the termite treatment wherever necessary. We were putting waterproofing wherever it was necessary. But unfortunately with this entire nine months lockdown in fact the lockdown in JNU has never ended. It's still going on. So in this nine months the lab has not been visited at all. My professor used to come once a month do whatever termite spraying he could. But the damage is far too much. Like to save years and years of PhD work for some. So we are not doing this for ourselves. Because this lab we have already told that this is one of the 12 labs in the country and maybe this is the only lab in Delhi. So it is used by almost many university students and scholars. So what we are doing now is for everyone. Don't think that we are doing this for ourselves. Because in this the samples that have been destroyed are many more scholars destroyed than other institutes. Many old samples have been destroyed. It's not only for us CSRD students but it's for the entire of the nation whoever wants to come and get their samples processed in far lesser money than they would have probably done from other research agencies. So far the other luminescence dating facilities in India are part of research facilities never a part of a university. This is the first time that has this kind of a facility is a part of a university. These are trees growing on top of the lab and which has been allowing seepage inside for the last 4-5 years ever since the lab was established. And if you try to repair the wall right now the entire wall will go. We have had to because of this regional reason and the seepage of the water we have had to lose one of our double distillation plants. This we have replaced by ourselves and no responsibility was claimed then. This is our fume hood. So it's supposed to be very state of the art back in 2016 but this is the condition right now. I've lost our magnetic stirrer and this has entirely happened because if somebody would have had like if there was an inquiry committee like you know who'd like a committee which would be in charge of taking care all of these labs. And I did mention the drawback we are from social sciences. So they are talking about this entire interdisciplinary studies in their education policy but in practicality they don't even have the means to support the existing facilities. I'm associated with TL and OSL lab which has been completely destroyed you know during this lockdown period. I was staying away from the campus and when this lockdown started I was stuck out of the campus with no access to the lab, to the library or any academy resource. Now it's been more than going to be more than nine years my sample has got completely destroyed because it was in the center and I have no resources with me I'll have to go back to the field again to get the samples done and I don't know whether I'll get the exact sample from the same place or not. And if I'm not able to get the sample there is no point of completing or doing my PhD. Thanks to uncovering repaired by ourselves like since nobody's taking responsibility what to do. Okay you don't even know whom to ask the reparations from you keep writing shooting mails to the rector to SCMM to different different people but nobody seems to own up to it and I'll show you the reason why because they've kept whole lot of scrap for the last five years on top of the ceiling and never bothered to clean it. This entire lab is basically an investment exceeding two or two crores but the machineries were under serious threat because of the lack of attention from the JNU administration for the last four to five years when we have been writing emails time and again for proper maintenance of this place but nothing has actually happened. So basically this is where the radioactive strontium 90 gets stored here. These are the condition of the wall it's that multiple trees are growing there and all of this may fall and our centrifuges will be gone our jaw crusher will be gone or everything else that is already being rusted will be gone. So apart from the infrastructural damage there has been so much of time that we spend for each of these samples we spend months after months processing each of these samples and we have had samples from Sagar University we have had our own samples we have had samples from IIT Roorkee we've had samples from Cincinnati from North Carolina all of them which were trusted with us because we work in this lab they're all gone and we are unsettable right now in fact this is not our fault at all like it's completely JNU administration and the mismanagement they have been doing.