A heavy-duty Russian cargo plane on October 2 embarked to Antarctica, with large scientific instruments and equipment meant to record atmospheric and climate changes in Antarctica. This first ever direct air cargo mission between India to Antarctica was facilitated by IL-76 operated by Dronning Maud Land Air Network (DROMLAN). The cargo plane carried 18 tons of gear, medicines, provision, and essentials for Indian researchers operating at the research bases, Bharati and Maitri. This specialized cargo plane, commonly deployed by the military for transporting cargo, including the Indian Army, was re-routed via Goa’s Manohar International Airport located in Mopa. Over the next few days, it will fly to its destination in the southern hemisphere enroute South Africa's Cape Town . India has been undertaking scientific research in Antarctica since 1981. All these years, both research teams and gears were sent to Antarctica via ship, often operated by other nationalities. As scientific equipment and gears meant for scientific experiments are high-end and specialised in nature from the regular cargo shipments, the sea-route was opted for operational costs and load carrying capacity. However, the uncertain and changing geo-political scenario in recent times, long wait for permission and shipment approvals, non-reliable shipments services via sea were among the many concerns for Goa-based National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR), which is the nodal agency for organising India’s scientific expeditions to the Antarctic and Arctic. “Post the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent disruption in the supply chain, our scientific shipments to Antarctica were facing unacceptable delays. As a result, researchers would be forced to wait for their shipments to arrive, thus defeating the whole purpose of the mission. Two of our latest missions to Antarctica experienced delay in shipment deliveries,” Thamban Meloth, director, NCPOR, told The Indian Express. India’s first Antarctic research station, Dakshin Gangotri, was built in 1983 and it operated for a few years. In 1989, the second research station, Maitri, was established in the Schimacher oasis region located in north Antarctica. At a given time, Maitri can accommodate about 25 crew members. More recently, in 2012, Bharati, the third research station - located at about 3,000km east of Maitri - became operational and this facility supports 47 crew members at a time. Atmospheric scientists, meteorologists, glaciologists, biologists, botanists, geologists, seismologists form the scientific staff at these two research stations operating round the year through the planned summer and winter expeditions. When asked why India never considered sending its shipments via air, Meloth said, “The need was felt due to the supply-chain problem and the delays in shipment deliveries. Also, air cargo is an expensive affair, needs planning and co-ordination as the cargo plane from Russia requires to be re-routed via India. That is why we may not opt for air cargo service every year.” As like the specialised shipment, landing on the icy and frozen Antarctica land is no cake-walk. Only certain classes of airplanes are designed to fly-in and safely touch-down on runways that are specially built in Antarctica. For instance, IL-76 is well-suited for landing on the frozen, blue-ice runways of the continent due to its special low-pressure tires and landing capabilities. “The 3km-long runway is built and operated during October – early March, when it is winter time in Antarctica. It is the highly trained pilots, like test pilots, who are designated to operate these flights,” the NCPOR director noted. Flight operations to Antarctica are anything but close to the regular flight operations, which are fully supported by Air Traffic Control (ATC) and guided by radar systems. In Antarctica, there is a minimally operated ATC, inclement and persistent windy weather conditions leave small windows with favourable weather for flight operations. On some occasions, flights have remained stalled at Cape Town waiting for weather in Antarctica to improve. NCPOR’s Arctic expeditions were, until recently, limited to summer expeditions. In 2023, the first winter expedition was launched. On the possibility of introducing air cargo services for its Arctic expeditions, Meloth said, “No, we do not require such a service for the Arctic expeditions as there are commercial flight operations available for shipments. Moreover, such large airplanes cannot land in Svalbard-like regions.”
