Indian Antarctic Program

• Indian Antarctic Program - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

  • The Indian Antarctic Program is a multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional program under the control of the National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India. It was initiated in 1981 with the first Indian expedition to Antarctica.
  • The program gained global acceptance with India's signing of the Antarctic Treaty and subsequent construction of the Dakshin Gangotri Antarctic research base in 1983,^[1] superseded by the Maitri base from 1990.
  • The first Indian research base—named Dakshin Gangotri—was set up on the ice shelf off the Princess Astrid Coast (70°45′S 12°30′E) in central Queen Maud Land in 1983.^[6]
  • In 1981 the Indian flag unfurled for the first time in Antarctica, marking the start of Southern Ocean expeditions under the environmental protocol of the Antarctic Treaty (1959). The first permanent settlement was built in 1983 and named Dakshin Gangotri. In 1989 it was abandoned after it became buried in ice.

  • Maitri

     

     

    The second permanent settlement, Maitri, was put up in 1988–89 on the Schirmacher Oasis and has been conducting experiments in geology, geography and medicine. India built a freshwater lake around Maitri known as Lake Priyadharshini. Maitri accomplished the mission of geomorphologic mapping of Schirmacher Oasis