India's polar ambitions are
growing By Sudha Ramachandran
BANGALORE - India's polar ambitions have
received a boost with its plan to set up a new
research station in Antarctica receiving approval
at the just-concluded Antarctic Treaty
Consultative Meeting in New Delhi.
The
site for the proposed station is an unnamed
promontory between Stornes and Broknes peninsulas
in the Larsemann Hills area in eastern Antarctica.
This is a rare stretch of ice-free land
on
the continent.
Antarctica belongs to no
country. Seven countries - Argentina, Australia,
the United Kingdom, Chile, France, Norway and New
Zealand - have formal claims on the continent.
These claims are frozen under the Antarctic
Treaty. Mining is banned in Antarctica until 2048.
The Antarctic environment is a huge
attraction for research scientists and tourists.
While its harsh yet achingly beautiful wilderness
draws in the tourists, its environment provides
scientists with unique views of the workings of
the Earth.
And then there is the
attraction of its resources. Antarctica is rich in
minerals such as coal and natural resources
including fisheries. It contains 30% of the
world's fresh water. Most important, it holds oil.
Estimates vary as to the abundance of oil in
Antarctica, but the Weddell and Ross sea areas
alone are said to possess 50 billion barrels of
oil, according to the US Department of Energy.
It is feared that while some of the
research activity in Antarctica is aimed at
understanding wildlife and weather patterns,
countries are setting up research stations there
also to study what energy resources and mineral
riches it contains. Countries want a toehold in
Antarctica to ensure that they will have a voice
if and when the continent's resources are opened
for exploitation. Research activity is seen as
providing that toehold.
Some 30 countries
maintain research stations in Antarctica.
The research station that India will set
up soon is its third in Antarctica. India is a
signatory to the 1959 Antarctic Treaty since 1983
and a member of the Scientific Community on
Antarctic Research since 1984.
India's
Antarctic program began with an expedition to the
icy continent in 1981. Two years later, it set up
its first research station, Dakshin Gangotri. When
Dakshin Gangotri was submerged in polar ice, India
set up its second research station, Maitri, in
1988-89 in the Schirmacher Hill area. Over the
years, India's research in Antarctica has taken
significant strides, and it is now keen to set up
another station in the Larsemann Hills area.
This area is a favorable site for a research
station as it offers an ice-free, flat terrain for
construction of the station and easy access from
the sea. Three other countries - Russia, China and
Australia - already have bases there.
India has said it has research interests
that are specific to this part of Antarctica.
"This is an interesting region for us
[India] because it was connected to the Mahanadi
region in eastern India before the continents
separated," said Sharadindu Mukerji, director of
the Antarctic division of the Geological Survey of
India. "Geological features of the Mahanadi area
and the Lambert glacier in eastern Antarctica make
a perfect fit."
Scientists believe that
most of the landmasses in the Southern Hemisphere
and India were once part of a massive
super-continent they call Gondwana.
According to the report that India
submitted to the Committee for Environmental
Protection for consideration at the Delhi meet,
the area where India would like to set up its new
station "offers an excellent scope for extensive
studies on geological structures and tectonics
with special reference to [Gondwana],
paleo-climatology, solid-earth geophysics, space
weather and meteorology, oceanography, marine
biology, microbiology, environmental science etc".
The setting up of more research stations
has raised environmental concerns, as human
activity is inflicting damage on Antarctica's
ecology and pristine environment. Scientists
insist that their numbers and their impact on the
Antarctic environment are marginal compared with
those of tourists flocking to this continent.
Indeed, while the scientists in Antarctica number
only a few thousand, annual tourist arrivals have
grown from 5,000 in 1990 to about 37,000 this
year.
But research activity - the
relatively small numbers of scientists and support
staff notwithstanding - has contributed to messing
up Antarctica too. The United States' McMurdo
Station alone, which has a summertime population
of 2,000, generates more than a tonne of garbage
per person every year, and discharges 250,000
liters of raw sewage into the Ross Sea every day.
The United States' construction of a
1,600-kilometer-long "ice highway" from its
station to the South Pole has damaged the
Antarctic wilderness, as have the helicopters and
planes of countries flying supplies to support
their scientists.
Concerns were raised by
several countries regarding India's new base at
Larsemann Hills. Yves Frenot, first vice chairman
of the Committee for Environmental Protection,
said: "The proposed Indian station has several
pristine lakes with marine animals and algae
around it." There is concern that the Indians will
source their drinking water from these,
contaminating them in the process. "India has made
assurances that it will use water from streams
which are going out of the lake. It will not
undertake direct activity in the water of the
lakes," Frenot said.
India has also
promised to adopt quarantine measures and proper
cleaning of material and equipment to minimize
risk of introducing new plant/insect species.
Having addressed environmental concerns
and with the green light from the Antarctic
committee, India will now move quickly to set up
its new research station. It will have a life span
of 25 years and accommodate 25 people during the
summer and 15 during the winter.
The vote
of confidence is a boost to India's research
interests in Antarctica, say scientists at the
Goa-based National Center for Antarctic and Ocean
Research, the nodal agency for India's Antarctic
activities. The Indian government is expected to
provide more financial and other support to back
the Antarctic research.
According to
Minister for Science and Technology Kapil Sibal,
within the next five years India will have its own
first ice-class oceanographic
research-cum-logistic vessel. India's Antarctic
expeditions have hitherto been conducted on hired
vessels. The new vessel will facilitate Indian
scientists carrying out full-fledged research
expeditions to polar regions and in the waters off
Antarctica.
Research at the Maitri station
too is set to expand. India will set up a
satellite earth station here. "The station will
provide better communication and data-transfer
facilities between the Antarctic and mainland
India," a senior official of the Ministry of Earth
Sciences has said. Once operational, it is
expected to enhance India's capability in polar
orbiting satellites as well.
India has its
eyes set on the Arctic as well. To complement its
research work in the Antarctic, it will head to
the Arctic in a few months, as part of a
collaborative project with the Norwegians.
Clearly, India's polar ambitions are growing.
Such ambitions are viewed with unease by
countries with territorial claims in Antarctica.
To them, research stations are Trojan horses that
could weaken their claims to the icy continent.
The contest over Antarctica is heating up.
Sudha Ramachandran is an
independent journalist/researcher based in
Bangalore.
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