Report by Aarya Krishnan
The Indian Antarctic programme began in 1981 and since then has completed 40 scientific
expeditions and built three permanent research base stations in Antarctica: Dakshin Gangotri
(1983), Maitri (1988), and Bharati (2012).
It has now launched its 41st expedition to Antarctica with a crew of 23 scientists and support staff.
Dr Shailendra Saini, Scientist of National Centre for Polar & Ocean Research (voyage leader), Anoop Kalayil Soman, scientist from the Indian Institute of Geomagnetism (leader, Bharati Station), and Huidrom Nageshwar Singh, meteorologist, IMD (leader, Maitri station) are leading this expedition.
The team reached the Indian Antarctic station ‘Maitri’ last week and four more groups of scientists will reach Antarctica by an air route using the DROMLAN facility and private ice-class vessel MV Vasiliy Golovnin.
Once all the groups of scientists reach Antarctica, they will launch two main programs as a part of the expedition.
The first program will include geological investigation of the Amery ice shelf at the Bharati station.
This program will help explore the history of India and Antarctica and let us find out more about the connection between them. The second program will have inspection surveys and preparatory work for the drilling of 500 meters of ice core near the Maitri station.
This program will aid in understanding the Antarctic climate, sea-ice, westerly winds and greenhouse gases better, which all come from a single climate documentation for the past
10,000 years.
The British Antarctic Survey and the Norwegian Polar Institute have joined forces to carry out the ice core drilling near Maitri station. The collaboration will assist in restocking the annual
supplies of food and other resources for operations and support at Maitri and Bharati.
The crew of India’s 41st expedition to Antarctica has received training for snow-ice adaptation and survival at the mountaineering and skiing Institute ITBP Auli, in Uttarakhand. As a promise to keep Antarctica free of COVID-19, the Indians have undergone a strict medical exam at AIIMS (Delhi) and severe sanitary protocols including a 14-day quarantine at Cape Town in South Africa.
The crew will return to Cape Town in March-April 2022 along with the winter team of India’s 40th expedition to Antarctica. A team of 48 members will stay back for winter.
Image credits: Twitter of @moesgoi
