India to convey its plans to build a new research station in Antarctica to ATCM

India to present plans for new Antarctic research station at ATCM meeting in Kochi, focusing on sustainability and tourism regulation.

India will formally convey its plan to develop a new research station in Antarctica to the governing authority of the icy continent when the body meets for its annual meeting in Kochi later this month.

The 46th Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM) and the 26th Meeting of the Committee for Environment Protection will be held in Kochi from May 20-30 where countries engaged in research in the southern polar region will share the outcome of their scientific pursuits and also their future plans.

"This year, we are going to inform the ATCM that we are planning to go for a revamp of our research station Maitri. Revamp means, Maitri is very old, we have to re-construct," M. Ravichandran, Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences, said in an interaction with PTI editors in Delhi.

India has two active research stations — Maitri and Bharti — in Antarctica. The first research station, Dakshin Gangotri, set up in 1983, had to be abandoned after it sank in the snow.

Among the scientific community, Maitri, which was built about 35 years ago, is called a village, while the 12-year-old Bharti is a state-of-the-art facility with all the trappings of a luxury hotel, but without the elaborate staff.

Once the Maitri-2 research station is built, the Maitri station is expected to be turned into a summer camp and designated as a monument.

Also on the agenda of the ATCM are plans to regulate tourism in Antarctica, which is the Earth's only continent without an indigenous population and is governed by the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS) which was signed in 1961.