• India recently unveiled a new draft policy for the Arctic. The policy articulates India’s desire to push the frontiers of science forward. But more than just about research, sustainability, and connectivity, the document is an assertion of India’s global ambitions.

• India’s engagement with the Arctic has been multi-dimensional. Within the span of a little over a decade, it has grown from a modest station at Svalbard to encompass a wide range of activities. India looks forward to increasing its engagement with this vital region and its governing bodies as a responsible partner.

India’s Arctic mission

• To contribute to international efforts to enhance humankind’s understanding of the Arctic region in India’s capacity as an Observer State to the Arctic Council.

• To enhance sustainable and mutually beneficial cooperation between India and the Arctic.

• To strengthen efforts against global warming.

• To better understand the scientific and climate related linkages between the Arctic and the Indian monsoons.

• To harmonise polar research with the third pole — the Himalayas.

• To advance the study and understanding of the Arctic within India.

Arctic policy will rest on five pillars:

1) Science and research

2) Economic and human development cooperation

3) Transportation and connectivity

4) Governance and international cooperation

5) National capacity building.

The policy shall be implemented through an Action Plan and an implementation and review mechanism based on timelines, prioritisation of activities and allocation of resources. The implementation will involve all stakeholders including academia, research community, business and industry.

Significance of Arctic region

• The Arctic is commonly understood to refer to the region above the Arctic Circle, which includes the Arctic Ocean with the North Pole at its centre. Much of this Ocean falls within the jurisdiction of five Arctic littoral states — Canada, Denmark (Greenland), Norway, Russia and the US (Alaska). Three other Arctic nations, Finland, Sweden and Iceland, along with the five littorals form the Arctic Council. 

• The Arctic is home to almost four million inhabitants, of which approximately one-tenth are considered as indigenous people.

• The Arctic Ocean and its surrounding land masses have been a topic of immense interest and a high priority area of research among the global scientific fraternity as well as of importance to policy makers. 

• The Arctic influences atmospheric, oceanographic and biogeochemical cycles of the earth’s ecosystem.

• The vulnerability of the Arctic to unprecedented changes in the climate is manifested by the loss of sea ice, ice caps, and warming of the ocean and atmosphere. It will lead to lowering of salinity levels, rising temperature differential between land and oceans in the tropical regions, drying of subtropical areas and increase in precipitation at higher latitudes.

• The potential threat to biodiversity and its impact remains in the Arctic, but it is intricately connected with the subtropics and even the tropics ecosystems.

• India is particularly impacted due to the likely effect of these changes on critical aspects of national development, economic security, water security and sustainability, weather conditions and monsoon patterns, coastal erosion and glacial melting. 

• Indian agriculture is heavily dependent on the monsoons. It receives around 70 per cent of its annual rainfall during this season. The yield of staple summer crops such as rice, pulses and soybeans, which account for almost 50 per cent of India’s food output, are dependent upon the precipitation during this period. A good monsoon is critical for India’s food security and the wellbeing of its vast rural sector. Changes in the Arctic and global ecosystem induced by melting Arctic ice, can thus be highly disruptive for India.

• Arctic research will help India’s scientific community to study melting rates of the third pole — the Himalayan glaciers, which are endowed with the largest freshwater reserves in the world outside the geographic poles.

India’s scientific endeavours in the Arctic

• India’s engagement with the Arctic began in February 1920, when it signed the Svalbard Treaty in Paris. 

• Its polar research experience began in 1981 when the first scientific expedition to Antarctica was undertaken. India launched its first scientific expedition to the Arctic in 2007. The objective of the expedition was to initiate a series of baseline measurements in biological sciences, ocean and atmospheric sciences and glaciology. 

• Subsequently, the Indian research station ‘Himadri’ in the international Arctic research base at Ny-Ålesund in Spitsbergen, Svalbard, Norway was dedicated to the nation in 2008.

• IndArc, the country’s first multi-sensor moored observatory was deployed in Kongsfjorden in 2014. 

• In 2016, India’s northernmost atmospheric laboratory was established at Gruvebadet. The laboratory is equipped with several instruments that can study clouds, precipitation, long-range pollutants, and other background atmospheric parameters. 

• Indian researchers are monitoring arctic glaciers for their mass balance, comparing them with glaciers in the Himalayan region. 

• The country’s association with the Arctic is part of its overall polar programme which includes activities in the Arctic, Antarctic, Southern Ocean and the Himalayas. 

• The scientific engagement with the Antarctic has grown manifold during the last four decades. India is a part of the Antarctic Treaty System, Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research, Council of Managers of National Antarctic Programs and Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources.

• In the Arctic, India is a member of the Ny-Ålesund Science Managers Committee (NySMAC), the International Arctic Science Committee, University of Arctic and Asian Forum for Polar Sciences.

• India’s focus on cryospheric research has assisted in increasing the understanding of the Arctic. India has also been actively involved in the Arctic oceanographic, atmospheric, pollutant and microbiology related studies. Over 25 institutes and universities are currently involved in Arctic research in India. 

India’s Arctic station Himadri is presently manned for about 180 days a year. Since its establishment, over three hundred Indian researchers have worked in the station. 

• India has sent 13 expeditions to the Arctic since 2007 and runs 23 active projects. 

• The National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR), under ministry of earth sciences, is the nodal agency for India’s polar research programme, which includes Arctic studies.

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