By Rupesh Samant

Panaji, Jan 4: After a gap of a year due to COVID-19 pandemic, India’s expedition to Artic region will resume this year in the month of June, a senior functionary said on Monday.

Talking to reporters in Vasco, Dr M Ravichandran, Director, National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR) said that the annual expedition to Arctic region could not take place due to COVID-19 outbreak.

“Last year the expedition was cancelled because of Covid-19 outbreak. This year, we are resuming the expedition. It will be held from June to October,” he said.

India embarked upon the Arctic research by launching First Indian scientific expedition to Arctic - in the first week of August 2007 using the international research facility at Ny-Alesund in the Spitsbergen Island of Norway. Subsequently India has been sending scientific teams every summer and winter for carrying out studies in the Arctic, primarily in the fields of glaciology, hydrochemistry, microbiology, and atmospheric sciences.

He said the crew for Arctic expedition will go by flight. “There’s science village of Arctic where the representatives of seven countries would be staying together,” said Ravichandran adding that a time only ten members of Indian expedition can go.

The crew for the expedition will go in batches as the capacity of the Indian station is ten, he said.

Once ten people return, more ten will go, he said, adding that total 150-200 people from Indian team would be participating in the Expedition.