India's Antarctica Station At Par With World: Geologist

'Dakshin Gangotri' was replaced in 1988 by the indigenously-designed second permanent station 'Maitri', shortly before the first station was buried in ice and abandoned in 1990-91.

In 2012, 'Bharati', became India's third state-of-the-art research base in Antarctica.

Sengupta, now a member of the research advisory committee to Antarctica, returned to the region with the ninth expedition in 1989.

One of the reasons for polar research being sought after by the world, including India, according to Sengupta, is the continent's geological history.

Antarctica was once a part of the pre-historic supercontinent called Gondwanaland that also comprised present-day South America, Africa, Arabia, Madagascar, India and Australia.

Now a professor at Jadavpur University, Sengupta explained the importance of polar research in Antarctica: "It being the only polar continent, glaciological studies are extremely important. Also biological, geological studies are necessary as Antarctica was a key piece of Gondwanaland. It is also the area for upper atmospheric studies like that of the ozone hole and meteorological effects (that affect world weather)."

However, she argued that results of the studies in the region cannot be demarcated for a specific country.

"The research is not country specific ... the studies affect the entire world," she said, referring to the discovery of the ozone hole whose effects resonated across the globe.

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