After the Second World War, as Antarctica witnessed an upsurge in scientific exploration, a number of nations asserted territorial claims on the continent, primarily based on their discoveries and expeditions.

India’s engagement with the ‘White Continent’ started as early as 1956 when India proposed an merchandise titled ‘The Question of Antarctica’ on the agenda of the eleventh UN General Assembly, stating that the huge areas and sources of Antarctica be used completely for peaceable functions and for normal welfare.

Amid considerations over mining and international locations organising navy bases, in 1959, 12 international locations signed the Antarctic Treaty. India wasn’t among the many preliminary signatories. The Treaty prohibited navy exercise, nuclear testing and disposal of radioactive waste and underlined that Antarctica can solely be used for peaceable functions and for scientific investigation and analysis. Mineral exploitation, apart from scientific analysis, was prohibited.

In 1960-61, an Indian biologist, Dr Giriraj Singh Sirohi, spent 100 days in sub-zero temperatures of the South Pole at McMurdo Station as a part of the United States Antarctic Research Program. The identical yr, an Indian meteorologist, Lt Ram Charan, went south to the Wilkes Station, as an Indian authorities observer with Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions.

But it was one other Indian who turned the primary from the nation to circumnavigate Antarctica and winter-over the South Pole. Under a joint Indo-Soviet settlement, Dr Parmjit Singh Sehra, then a younger researcher on the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad, spent 18 months in 1971-1973 because the Project Scientist, “carrying out the upper atmospheric meteorological rocket soundings from the main Soviet station Molodezhnaya (in Antarctica)”.

In his diary notes, which he later revealed as A go to to the South Pole, Dr Sehra recounted his odyssey to probably the most distant station in Antarctica.

On the “harsh winter” and the meals shortages the group needed to endure, Sehra wrote, “…an emergency was declared at our station due to the acute shortage of food and other essential provisions… Our tinned food also got exhausted during the extremely cold and stormy polar night. As a consequence, we had to live on Antarctic seals, penguins and fish. I remember my days in Antarctica when we also had to eat the meat of our favorite huskies [that pulled sledges] in order to survive,” he wrote.

While his voyage could have sparked curiosity in a deeper scientific exploration of Antarctica, the plan to ship an expedition solely took form underneath former prime minister Indira Gandhi, who arrange the Department of Ocean Development in May 1981.

Operation Gangotri was stored underneath wraps, amid uncertainties in regards to the consequence and the opportunity of sabotage. Over the following few months in 1981, a chartered vessel from Norway was employed, with backchannel diplomacy with NATO nations guaranteeing that the information didn’t leak.

A crew of 21, together with oceanographers, meteorologists, biologists, geologists, a geophysicist, a radio communication knowledgeable and several other navy personnel, have been drawn up from seven totally different establishments throughout the nation. They have been led by marine biologist Dr S Z Qasim.

“The entire operation, starting from conception to us finally sailing off from Goa…was accomplished in just over four months. Our initial meetings were held behind closed doors. People like the Cabinet Secretary, Defence Secretary and the Chief of Naval Staff…they were addressing us and we were discussing strategy…and we were not allowed to tell any of this outside. We couldn’t tell our wives. We felt like we were in a James Bond movie,” Dr Amitava Sengupta, radiophysicist, a member of the primary expedition, advised The Indian Express.

In October, the crew was despatched to Gulmarg for acclimatisation coaching. “We were also taken around the Bay of Bengal for seven days. There were six-seven of us who had to be trained, and because this was top secret, the trainers were not allowed to know what we were going to be trained for. So, he (the ship’s captain) gave us all kinds of training, even how to use a pistol. They thought we were being trained for some secret offensive operation,” stated Dr Sengupta.

On December 6, 1981, the group set sail. It was 10 days later that the information broke. And when that occurred, the operation was seen as India’s bid to mark its presence as a rising energy, particularly underneath the management of Gandhi. The British journal ‘New Scientist’, in its February 1982 version, reported the story underneath the headline, “Indians quietly invade Antarctica”. The international press, too, raised political questions concerning India’s ‘intentions’ in Antarctica, amidst tensions over management of the icy continent’s sources.

Sengupta stated the preliminary few makes an attempt to discover a secure strategy to land the vessel have been unsuccessful. “We were all getting impatient. We thought they will just take us back. But finally, we landed. I still remember the sun was out and weather had cleared. We were greeted by penguins. We took a photo in front of the ship,” he added.