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Journalism of Courage
A sixty-member Indian team , including 27 scientists, set sail for Antarctica from Goa today to set up the third Indian station on the icy continent. The team on board the Akademic Boris Petrov—an ice-class ocean research vessel chartered by the Department of Ocean Development—is to stay in Antarctica for 20 days, a National Institute of Oceanography spokesperson said.
The station will be set up at Pritz Bay, close to the Larseman Hills, 1,000 nautical miles away from the other two Indian stations—the Dakshin Gangotri and the Maitri. It will, however, be relatively nearer Australian, Russian and Chinese stations.
The scientists will collect sediment and water samples from Antarctica and the Southern Ocean to prepare baseline data of oceanographic and environmental aspects, which will help in climactic predictions.
The expedition, led by M Sudhakar of the National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research, includes officials of the Physical Research Laboratory (Ahmedabad), the Indian Meteorological Department, the Indian Institute of Science and the National Institute of Oceanography.
