Sep

18

India’s arctic venture

September 18, 2007 posted by indiatime |

ny_alesund1.jpgIt’s almost more than a month now that five Indian scientists landed on the Norwegian island of Ny Alesund, as part of India’s foray into arctic research. India’s government has officially said that the 5-member team will study atmospheric particles in the arctic to study the global warming and its effects on India’s atmospheric happenings, especially the Indian monsoon.

This is the beginning of India’s long relationship and friendship with the arctic as there are more visits that will follow this 4-week long stint. Although it looks and sounds like a huge deal for Indians venturing into the arctic, the reality is that we have jumped on the arctic bandwagon a bit too late. The island of Ny Alesund already has teams from China, Korea, Japan, UK, Italy, France, Germany, and of course Norway. The real reason all these nations are coming to this island is that the receding of the northern polar caps is exposing oil-rich reserves in the norwegian oceans.

The nations gathering on this small Norwegian island have been benefitting from a special treaty signed almost 90 years ago. According to that treay, Norway has a right of sovereignty over the Svalbard archipelago (which includes the Ny Alesund islands), but several other nations who signed the treaty can use the islands for commercial purposes. India, which at that time was part of the British overseas dominions, also signed the treaty on December 29, 1923 (The king of Britain signed the treaty as emperor of India). That signature gives India the authority to conduct commercial exploration of the Ny Alesund islands.

So as the jostling and bullying for positions warms up in the cold north, India, now a major world player, has rightly staked its legal claim. One wonders what India’s scientists and thinktanks were doing for last 80 years, having known the possibility of commercial exploration in the far north and never having attempted a day-trip. But all is not lost, and the rush for the black gold is still on.


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