50 OutlOOk 5 August 2019
I
ndia’s interest in antarctica dates back to
1956, when it raised the issue of antarctic
continent under Provisional agenda at the
Un General assembly and pitched for its
status as a natural heritage. its maiden expe-
dition to antarctica in 1981-82, therefore, was
welcomed by a select club of nations party to the
antarctic Treaty, with 12 original signatories
(argentina, australia, Belgium, Chile, France,
Japan, new Zealand, norway, south africa,
UssR, UK and Us, signed at Washington on
december 1, 1959). The Treaty recognises that it
is in the interest of all mankind that “antarctica
shall continue forever to be used exclusively
for peaceful purposes and shall not become the
scene or object of international discord”.
Today, the antarctic Treaty has 53 nations,
29 of which have consultative (voting) status.
soon after it commissioned its first permanent
research base at dakshin Gan gotri in 1983, india
was granted the status in the antarctic Treaty
Consultative Committee Meetings (aTCM) that
take policy decisions over running the scientific
and logistic activities in antarctica, apart from
ensuring that strict environmental procedures
are followed to preserve its fragile ecosystem.
Though no country has sovereign control
on any territory of antarctica, greater parts of
it have been shared by original claimants and
literature abounds in naming areas of antarcti-
ca, like ‘Falkland islands dependencies’ (UK),
‘Ross dependency’ (new Zealand), the ‘aus-
tralian antarctic Territory’, ‘dronning Maud
Land’ (norway), ‘Terre adelie’ (France), while
western antarctica’s Marie Byrd and Ellsworth
Lands are often called the american sector.
The undeclared control over major issues
con cerning antarctica by Europe, be it biodi-
versity, non-native species, bio-prospecting etc
are going down, with australia, new Zealand
and Latin american states being joined by south
asian states taking an increasing role in climate
change, tourism and allied issues in meetings.
india pitched for ‘regulated tourism’ in antarcti-
ca during the aTCM held in new delhi in 2007.
The growth of the antarctican programme
of asian countries like india, China and Korea
have been phenomenal. While major players
like australia, Russia, Us and European nations
groaned under a financial crunch in the ’90s and
early noughties, india, China and Korea expand-
ed their activities by building new permanentresearch stations. China is constructing its fifth
station, building a sophisticated $300 million
ice-breaker, buying a high-tech fixed-wing
aircraft for taking sensitive scientific soundings
from the ice and planning to drill the deepest
hole in ice around ‘dome a’, from where it hopes
to get climatic records for over the past 1.5 mil-
lion years. it has signed various agreements with
European nations and australia for cooperation
in research, and has put in a lot of money.
While india faced scrutiny from con sultative
parties and nGOs like antarctic and southern
Ocean Coalition for its decision to build Bharati
in east antarctica, Korea’s Jang Bogo station in
Terra nova Bay and China’s Kunlun and Taishan
stations came up in 2014 without any resistance.
While india has no territorial claims over
antarctica, strategic and geopolitical interest
over the two polar areas of the world cannot
be ruled out. antarctica, as a storehouse of 90
per cent of the world’s ice caps, significantly
impacts the world’s climate, including, crucially,
the indian monsoon. On the commercial front,
though fishing in antarctic waters is not on the
indian agenda, with demand and capabilities
of indian fishermen increasing in future, india
can exercise its rights under the Convention for
the Conservation of antarctic Marine Living
Resources and opt for its rightful fishing quota.
india’s third Research Base in antarctica, Bhar-
ati, is located strategically in the Prydz bay area
of East antarctica, an area with a favorable geo-
logical environment for hydrocarbon deposits.
india has made significant strides in polar
sciences, including in cryosphere research,
ice core drilling, ice sheet dynamics, crustal
evolution, reconstruction and split of Gondwana
super continent, polar geomorphology, biology,
remote sensing and polar climatology, apart
from cruises over the southern Ocean, that have
filled the knowledge gap about the nature of
water masses and southern Ocean dynamics.
indian scientists have discovered cold-loving
microbes that survive under the extreme envi-
ronment. such microbes might prove medically
beneficial as they transcend physical boundaries
of one single environment. Though bio-pros-
pecting and issues like a conflict about propriety
rights/territorial rights is an agenda of aTCMs,
scientists can obtain necessary results in the
laboratory for pharmaceutical use and extend
it to commercially profitable levels. OIndia’s research activity in Antarctica adheres to the ideal of joint ownership
the snow owns us
Rasik Ravindra
is secretary-
general, 36th
International
Geological
Congress, N. Delhi,
and is ex-DDG, GSIIndia has
made great
strides in
polar
research: in
cryosphere,
ice core
drilling, ice
sheet
dynamics,
crustal
evolution etc.cover story opInIon