Indian Antarctic Program

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India's Antarctic Programme opened in 1981 when the first Indian Expedition was flagged off for Antarctica from Goa. Subsequently, annual Antarctic expeditions are being sent through Department of Ocean Development / National Centre for Antarctic & Ocean Research (NCAOR). So far, twenty-one such expeditions have been launched including one to the Weddell Sea and one being the krill expedition to the Southern Ocean. Dr. S. Z. Quasim was the leader of the first Indian Expedition, which was launched in December 1981. A third permanent Indian Antarctic Research Base Station is being planned and should be operational by 2008. A draft `comprehensive environment evaluation` of the new station site, which is slated to be 600 km east of the Maitri, has been prepared by the NCAOR to be submitted to the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Machinery.^[1]