Indian scientists will do research work in Antarctica to find out the cause of increased global warming and harmful effects of solar radiation due to depletion of the Ozone layer, official sources said on Monday.
The scientists will investigate how living organisms survived the rise in Ultra-Violet B radiation caused by decrease in the Ozone layer, Ashis Hazra, senior Zoologist at the Zoological Survey of India said.He is one of the six members of the core committee on Antarctica and Southern Ocean Affairs (India).
At Antarctica, Hazra said scientists would take up geological mapping, biological, environment and microbiological studies as also the physiological study of microorganisms. The guidelines will be issued by the Department of Ocean Development.
The third Indian research station will be well equipped with laboratories, workshops, generators and helipads.
The outcome of the research will be placed at the meeting of the international scientific community in 2007.
The Indian team members, to be drawn from national laboratories, surveys and institutions, will start from Marmagao for Cape Town en route to the southernnmost continent in the world, aboard Polish or Swedish ice-breakers in December this year.
The members will go through physical examination at the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi in August, Hazra said.
Antarctica, under the Antarctic treaty, is used for peaceful experiments by the international scientific community primarily to investigate the origin of the continents, global pollution, climatic changes, survival of living bodies and ozone holes.