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Himadri Base
·
On July 1,
2008 after
Antarctica,
India
commissioned
its
permanent
research
base at
North Pole –
Himadri
·
Himadri base
was
inaugurated
by Kapil
Sibal
at
Ny-Alesund,
on the west
coast of
Spitsbergen,
the largest
island in
Svalbard
archipelago
of Norway
·
With the
opening of
Himadri
India has
become the
tenth
country to
have
established
a
full-fledged
research
station at
Ny-Alesund.
·
The
permanent
research
base at
Himadri will
enable
scientists
to conduct
studies on
subjects,
including
climate
change, in
one of the
cleanest
environments
on Earth.
Mission
IAS’2009
·
Sibal also
visited the
Svalbard
Global Seed
Vault at
Longearbyen
and
deposited
five
varieties of
Indian
seeds,
including
IR-36 and
IR-64 of
rice and
Lerma Rojo,
Sonoro-64
and Ridley
of wheat.
·
Situated at
78055' N,
11056'E,
Ny-Alesund
is only
1,200 km
from North
Pole and an
offers ideal
land-based
entrance to
the Arctic.
·
The research
base in the
North Pole
comes three
decades
after India
set up a
permanent
station -
Dakshin
Gangotri -
at
Antarctica.
·
At present,
India has
one
operational
station in
Antarctica -
Maitri - and
is in the
process of
setting up
another one.
·
The
country’s
first
permanent
station in
Antarctica -
Dakshin
Gangotri -
set up in
1981 lies
buried under
snow now.
·
However, due
to almost
zero
pollution,
Arctic is
considered a
better
option than
Antarctica
for research
activities
by
scientists.
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