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Commemorative Cover for the Third
Indian Antarctic Expedition

Commemorative Cover for the Third Indian Antarctic Expedition
Commemorative Cover for the Third Indian Antarctic Expedition
Postmarked Dakshin Gangotri Indian Antarctic Station and Panaji, India
franked with the 50 paise dairy industry definitive of January 25, 1982

India's first Antarctic exploration began in 1981. The National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research has its headquarters in Goa. (Panaji, the second postmark on his cover, is the capital of the Indian state of Goa.) Established during the third Indian expedition to Antarctica in 1983-1984, Dakshin Gangotri was India's first scientific base station in Antarctica. Located at a distance of 2,500 kilometres from the South Pole, the station was built in eight weeks with construction completed late in January 1984 with help from the Indian army. Powered by solar energy, this as unmanned station was built using pre-fabricated timber and employed indigenous Indian technology to record data relating to weather, radio waves in Antarctica, physical oceanography, the chemistry of the freshwater lakes, biological traits of the land, biological traits of the water, geology, glaciology and geomagnetism of the area. It had an Inmarsat communication terminal and a short wave radio station. In 1984, a site for a new runway was identified two kilometres from the station and this facilitated the establishment of the first Indian post office in Antarctica and, along with that, the processing of 2000 philatelic covers with a commemorative postmark for Dakshin Gangotri. Meteorologist G. Sudhakar Rao was named as the first Indian postmaster in Antarctica in 1988. The base was abandoned in the 1988-1989 season after it was submerged in ice, and decommissioned on 25 February 1990. Subsequently, it was revived as a logistical base.

Commemorative Cover for the Fourth Indian Antarctic Expedition
Commemorative Cover for the Fourth Indian Antarctic Expedition
Postmarked Dakshin Gangotri Indian Antarctic Station and Panaji, India
franked with the 50 paise Indira Gandhi commemorative of November 19, 1984


Bibliography

"Dakshin Gangotri." Wikipedia. 27 Mar. 2020. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 12 Apr. 2020 ncaor.gov.in/antarcticas/display/166-india-in-antarctica.

"India." Scott Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue. Sydney, Ohio: Amos Media, 2015.

"India in Antarctica." NCPOR. 12 Apr. 2020. National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research. 12 Apr. 2020
     www.ncaor.gov.in/antarcticas/display/166-india-in-antarctica.


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