For Indian researchers, a field trip to the South Pole may no longer be a directionless exercise. The country's scientific institutions that have been dispatching short-term study teams to Antarctica will henceforth be required to commit themselves to projects of longer duration. This development arises from the growing realisation that brief programmes are hardly able to yield any results. The researchers too are not in a position to chalk out comprehensive plans, hamstrung as they are by the uncertain future of their projects.

Since the first expedition in 1981, India has been sending scientists to the icy continent for conducting research in a variety of fields such as geology, geomagnetic studies, atmospheric sciences, biology and environmental sciences. As many as 60 scientific institutions and universities have been involved in the expeditions. Prominent among them are the Geological Survey of India, India Meteorological Department, National Physical Laboratory, National Geophysical Research Institute and the Indian Institute of Geomagnetism. While these bodies have been part of each annual expedition, there are many other others which undertake research in the continent from time to time.

P C Pandey, director of the Goa-based National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research (ncaor)