Context: Over the last 60 years, numerous additional States have acceded to the Antarctic Treaty and its Protocol on Environmental Protection and are helping to implement these in practice.

About

• In December 1959, the signatory States to the Antarctic Treaty agreed on a milestone in the multilateral world order: in the interest of all mankind, the “seventh continent” was forever to be used exclusively for peaceful purposes and scientific investigation.
• It laid the foundations for scientific cooperation to further investigate the continent and its role in the Earth system and protected Antarctica’s environment and associated ecosystems against commercial exploitation of resources, as well as against military use.
• It regulates international relations with respect to Antarctica, Earth’s only continent without a native human population.
• For the purposes of the treaty system, Antarctica is defined as all of the land and ice shelves south of 60°S latitude.
• The treaty entered into force in 1961 and currently has 54 parties.
• The treaty sets aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve, establishes freedom of scientific investigation, and bans military activity on the continent.
• The treaty was the first arms control agreement established during the Cold War.
• India is a signatory of this treaty since 1983.

Why is it significant?

• Negotiated during the middle of the Cold War by 12 countries with Antarctic interests, it remains the only example of a single treaty that governs a whole continent.
• It is also the foundation of a rules-based international order for a continent without a permanent population.

Key provisions

• The treaty is remarkably short and contains only 14 articles.
• Principal provisions include promoting the freedom of scientific research, the use of the continent only for peaceful purposes, and the prohibition of military activities, nuclear tests and the disposal of radioactive waste.

What the treaty says about territorial claims

• The most important provision of the treaty is Article IV, which effectively seeks to neutralise territorial sovereignty in Antarctica.
• For the Antarctic territorial claimants, this meant a limit was placed on making any new claim or enlargement of an existing claim.
• Likewise, no formal recognition was given to any of the seven territorial claims on the continent, by Argentina, Australia, Chile, France, New Zealand, Norway and the United Kingdom.
• Russia, the United States and China — signatories with significant Antarctic interests who have not formally made territorial claims — are also bound by the limitations of Article IV.
• And one sector of Antarctica is not subject to the claim of any country, which effectively makes it the last unclaimed land on earth.
• The treaty also put a freeze on any disputes between claimants over their territories on the continent.

How the treaty has expanded

• Though the compact has held for 60 years, there have been tensions from time to time.
• Argentina and the UK, for instance, have overlapping claims to territory on the continent.
• When combined with their ongoing dispute over the nearby Falkland (Malvinas) Islands, their Antarctic relationship remains frosty.
• Membership of the treaty has grown in the intervening years, with 54 signatories today.

Where to from here?

• While the Antarctic Treaty has been able to successfully respond to a range of challenges, circumstances are radically different in the 2020s compared to the 1950s.
• Antarctica is much more accessible, partly due to technology but also climate change.
• More countries now have substantive interests in the continent than the original 12.
• Some global resources are becoming scarce, especially oil.

About Indian Antarctic Programme

• It is a scientific research and exploration program under the National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research (NCPOR). It started in 1981 when the first Indian expedition to Antarctica was made.
• NCPOR is the nodal agency for planning, promotion, coordination and execution of the entire gamut of polar and southern ocean scientific research in the country as well as for the associated logistics activities.
• It was established in 1998.

Dakshin Gangotri

• Dakshin Gangotri was the first Indian scientific research base station established in Antarctica, as a part of the Indian Antarctic Program.
• It has weakened and become just a supply base.

Maitri

• Maitri is India’s second permanent research station in Antarctica. It was built and finished in 1989.
• Maitri is situated on the rocky mountainous region called Schirmacher Oasis. India also built a freshwater lake around Maitri known as Lake Priyadarshini.

Bharti

• Bharti, India’s latest research station operation since 2012. It has been constructed to help researchers work in safety despite the harsh weather.
• It is India’s first committed research facility and is located about 3000 km east of Maitri.

Other Research Facilities
Sagar Nidhi

• In 2008, India commissioned the Sagar Nidhi, for research.
• An ice-class vessel, it can cut through the thin ice of 40 cm depth and is the first Indian vessel to navigate Antarctic waters.