Question

India’s permanent research station – Dakshin Gangotri is situated in ________________.
(A) Great Himalayas
(B) Indian Ocean
(C) Antarctica
(D) Arabian Sea

Answer 1

Hint: We must know that a research station is a structure that can be constructed to carry out research for scientific purposes. The outer space or the oceans are potential locations for setting up research stations. Until now, India has established three research stations. Dakshin Gangotri is notably the very first research station India had made.

Complete answer:
The Indian Antarctic Initiative is a multi-institutional, multidisciplinary program overseen by the Indian Government’s ‘National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research’ under the Ministry of Earth Sciences. It began with the first Indian trip to Antarctica in 1981. ‘Dakshin Gangotri’ was the very first research station that was established as part of the Indian Antartic program.

India is studying atmospheric, chemical, biological, and other medicinal sciences under the programs of the Indian Antarctic initiative, and as of October 14, 2010, it has completed a total of 30 research expeditions to Antarctica.

To confirm which location the research station ‘Dakshin Gangotri’ is situated, let us take a look at the options:
Option (A) Great Himalayas is an incorrect option. The Great Himalayas, sometimes known as the Greater Himalayas, are classified as the tallest mountain range present in the Himalayan Range. The Gangotri glacier is not present in this region hence ‘Dakshin Gangotri’ is not present here and so this option can be rejected.

Option (B) Indian Ocean is an incorrect option. The Indian Ocean is ranked to be the world's third-largest ocean body, accounting for 19.8 percent of the water on the planet's surface. So the entirety of the ocean is a water body and hence a research station has not been set up on this water body, so we can reject this option.

Option (C) Antarctica is the correct option. This can be said so since the Dakshin Gangotri Glacier is situated in the continent of Antarctica itself. After India's signature toward the 'Antarctic Treaty' there was a subsequent building of the 'Dakshin Gangotri Antarctic research facility in 1983, the program acquired worldwide support, which was later succeeded by the Maitri base in 1989. Bharati, the latest base, was completed in 2012 and is made out of 134 shipping containers.

Option (D) Arabian Sea is an incorrect option. Towards the northern part of the Indian Ocean, we are able to find a water body that is the Arabian Sea. The research station of ‘Dakshin Gangotri’ was not set up on this water body and so this option may be rejected.

Therefore the correct answer is an option (C) Antarctica, that is, “India’s permanent research station – Dakshin Gangotri is situated in Antarctica”.

Note: Maitri, another permanent research station, was established after Dakshin Gangotri in 1989 and it had performed experiments in areas of geography, geology and medicine. The Bharati, in 2015 had then become the third research station that was established and it is present near Larsmann Hill. The oceanographic research explained the continental separation that exposed the Indian subcontinent's 120-million-year-old ancient past.