India’s first Antarctic station sank into the ice within a few years of being built. That failure never stopped India from going back. It has built three more stations since, and a fourth is now on the way.
3Antarctic stations India has built
2Stations active today
1983India joins the Antarctic Treaty
₹29.2 crApproved for Maitri II, Dec 2025
- Dakshin Gangotri
- India’s first station, 1983, later buried by snow.
- Maitri
- India’s oldest working station, opened 1989, on rock.
- Bharati
- India’s newest working station, opened 2012, built from shipping containers.
- Consultative Party
- A voting member of the Antarctic Treaty, a status India earned in 1983.
Contents
1. Two active stations today.
Must Know.
1.1 Who runs India’s Antarctic presence.
- The two stations: India currently operates two active Antarctic stations, Maitri and Bharati.
- Who manages them: the National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research runs both, under the Ministry of Earth Sciences.
- The timeline: India built Dakshin Gangotri first, in 1983. It opened Maitri in 1989, then Bharati in 2012.
- Both in East Antarctica: the two active stations sit in East Antarctica, separated by roughly 3,000 km of ice.
- Year-round presence: both stations run all year. Winter teams stay through the darkest, coldest months, when supply ships cannot reach them. Summer teams are much larger, since fewer people can safely stay through the harshest season.
True or False: India currently runs two active Antarctic stations, Maitri and Bharati, both managed by the National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research.
Correct. Dakshin Gangotri, India’s first station, was decommissioned by 1990.
Not quite. Dakshin Gangotri, India’s first station, was decommissioned by 1990 — Maitri and Bharati are the two active ones today.
2. Dakshin Gangotri: the first attempt.
Must Know.
2.1 India’s first station, lost to snow.
- What happened to it: Dakshin Gangotri, India’s first station, sank into rising snow. It was abandoned and decommissioned by 1990.
- Its job today: the site now serves only as a supply base, not a working research station.
- Named after a sacred river: the station’s name means “southern Ganga,” reflecting India’s early cultural framing of the mission.
- India’s first expedition: Dakshin Gangotri followed India’s first-ever scientific expedition to Antarctica, in 1981. That trip proved India could sustain a presence there.
- A late arrival, by design: India joined Antarctic research decades after some Western nations. It still moved fast enough to earn full treaty influence.
3. A seat at the table.
Good to Know.
3.1 How India earned a vote in Antarctica.
- Consultative Party status: India has been a Consultative Party to the Antarctic Treaty since 1983. This status gives India a real voice in Antarctic governance decisions.
- Earned, not given: that status came from sustained, continuous research presence, not from diplomacy alone.
- What it means: Consultative Parties vote on Antarctic Treaty decisions. Non-consultative members can attend meetings, but cannot vote.
- The treaty’s core rule: the Antarctic Treaty bans military activity and mining across the whole continent. It reserves Antarctica for peaceful scientific research.
- A law of India’s own: India passed the Antarctic Act in 2022, regulating Indian activity in Antarctica and enforcing environmental protection rules.
4. Life at Maitri.
Good to Know.
4.1 A rare rocky foothold.
- A rocky foundation: Maitri sits on the Schirmacher Oasis, a rare rocky, ice-free patch of Antarctica.
- Lake Priyadarshini: Maitri sits beside Lake Priyadarshini, an artificial freshwater lake Indian researchers created nearby.
- Why the rocky site matters: most of Antarctica is buried under thick ice, so a rare rocky patch is genuinely valuable for a stable station.
- A home for wildlife too: the Schirmacher Oasis also supports mosses, lichens, and nesting seabirds, a small pocket of visible life on an otherwise frozen continent.
- Built for a decade, running for decades: the original Maitri station was designed for a working life of about 10 years. It has stayed in use far longer than planned, bringing real ageing-infrastructure and waste-management problems.
- Still producing science: despite its age, Maitri hosts working scientists every year, studying glaciology, atmospheric science, climate change, space weather, geomagnetism, and ozone depletion over Antarctica.
5. Bharati: a different kind of site.
Good to Know.
5.1 India’s newest, most advanced base.
- Where Bharati sits: between the Thala Fjord and Quilty Bay, a different, more remote part of East Antarctica than Maitri.
- Roughly 3,000 km apart: Bharati sits about 3,000 km east of Maitri, giving India a presence across two separate parts of the continent.
- Built with recycled containers: Bharati was built using recycled shipping containers, a modular design suited to Antarctica’s extreme, hard-to-reach conditions.
- A sea-based research focus: Bharati’s coastal location supports strong marine and coastal research, complementing Maitri’s more inland glaciology work.
- India’s newest base: Bharati remains India’s newest operating station, and so far its most technologically advanced.
6. Failure wasn’t the end.
Great to Know.
6.1 Why permanence is so hard here.
- A lesson, not a stop sign: India lost its first station to the ice. It built three more anyway, treating an early failure as a lesson, not a reason to quit.
- A multi-decade programme: building three stations across four decades reflects long-term national planning, not a one-off scientific stunt.
- A fourth station on the way: India is now planning a fourth station, Maitri II. Each new station has been larger and more capable than the last.
- Ice and cold fight back: extreme cold and constant ice movement wear down buildings fast, which is exactly why no Antarctic station lasts forever.
- A global pattern: other nations also regularly rebuild their own Antarctic stations. India’s cycle of replacement fits a shared global pattern.
- Snow load is the real enemy: accumulating snow can slowly bury a station, just as it buried Dakshin Gangotri. Engineers now design newer stations to resist exactly that.
7. Current affairs: Maitri II gets funded (2025).
Current Affairs.
7.1 Design money, and a 2032 target.
- The update: the Ministry of Earth Sciences approved ₹29.2 crore for Maitri II’s pre-investment work, covering architectural design and a Detailed Project Report. (Source: PIB, 10 December 2025)
- What it will add: Maitri II will include modern laboratories, advanced ice-core storage, a dedicated biological research suite, and wider atmospheric monitoring.
- The timeline: officials project a seven-year build, with Maitri II expected to become operational by 2032.
- Why it matters here: this is the exact replacement project section 6 describes. It shows the funding and design work are now genuinely under way.
Remember: Dakshin Gangotri (1983, lost to snow) → Maitri (1989, still active, rocky Schirmacher Oasis) → Bharati (2012, still active, recycled containers) → Maitri II (funded 2025, targeting 2032).
True or False: India’s Consultative Party status at the Antarctic Treaty was granted purely through diplomatic negotiation, without needing an actual research presence.
Correct. That status came from sustained, continuous research presence, not from diplomacy alone.
Not quite. That status came from sustained, continuous research presence, not from diplomacy alone.
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