ANTARCTICA (Syllabus: GS Paper 2 – IR)

Context: It’s 40 years since India became permanent resident of Antarctica.

• The Tricolour was unfurled in Antarctica in January 1982 but India did not have a permanent base there till its third expedition arrived in December 1983 and set up buildings where scientists could live year-round.

Antarctica

• About: It is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean).

oIt contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest continent, being about 40% larger than Europe.

• Regulation: It is governed by about 30 countries, all of which are parties of the 1959 Antarctic Treaty System.

oProhibited activates: Military activity, mining, nuclear explosions, and nuclear waste.

oAllowed activities: Tourism, fishing and research.

India’s research stations

• In Arctic: Himadri - located at Ny Alesund, Spitsbergen Island, Norway, IndARC - India's first underwater observatory at Svalbard, Norway.
• In Antarctic: Two operational research stations - Maitri (Commissioned in 1989) and Bharati (Commissioned in 2012)