Twenty years ago, India established its first permanent station, Dakshin Gangotri, in the frozen continent of Antarctica. Four years later, came Maitri after the Gangotri ice-shelf had outlived its life. And now the stage is set for a third station to unlock the secrets of the frozen continent. Situated 600 km east of Maitri, the new station lies near the foot of the Larsemann hills. It will be completed at the cost of Rs 15 crore over the next ‘‘three to four’’ Antarctic summers. Union Minister for Science and Technology and Ocean Development Kapil Sibal is scheduled to travel there between February 1-5 next year when it’s summer, when local temperatures are a balmy zero degrees but can even dip to 60 below. The new site, Sibal says, will be examined under the governing Antarctic Treaty System. What this means that is that besides exploration and scientific experiments to map weather data—and its effect on the monsoons—the Government is also looking at the possibility of asserting ‘‘sovereign rights’’ via domestic or territorial laws to the claimed sectors.
