Scientist, National Centre For Antarctic & Ocean Research, Goa, India
As the IPY completes one year successfully, India has contributed strongly to its scientific & outreach program that will continue into 2008-09 & beyond. National Centre for Antarctic & Ocean Research (NCAOR, under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, Govt. of India) is acting as the national coordinating agency and has well defined outreach activities that seek to educate school children, general public & scientific community about the challenges & need of the polar research. Towards this, NCAOR has contributed & participated in exhibitions to celebrate IPY. It has also put effort in getting published many articles outlining the activities under IPY themes in Indian scientific journals & has brought out special issues & sections in them.
NCAOR has supplied audio-visual & printed material on polar science to Nehru Science Centre (unit of National council of Science Museums, Ministry of Culture) to organize exhibitions on the theme The Story of Poles focusing on geography, environment, flora, fauna, people & importance of poles along with issues related to poles such as ozone hole, global warming etc. at several places in India. It was inaugurated in November 2007 & a public lecture entitled Science in the Polar Regions Indian Contribution was delivered by Sri Rasik Ravindra, Director, NCAOR. The exhibition consists of graphical panels, 3D interactive exhibits, animations, charts, 3D models, computer kiosks etc. NCAOR has also participated in the “4th Science-Expo organized by Nehru Science Centre at Mumbai from 11-15 January 2008 that was attended by 18,000 persons. Lectures were delivered by two NCAOR scientist that highlighted the effort of Indian scientists in unraveling the mysteries of the past using ice cores and other anthropogenic problems faced by Antarctic environment.
Three scientists from NCAOR also participated in the “Science Fiesta 2008 organized by Goa Science Centre (National council of Science Museums) at Panji, Goa from 26-28 February 2008 where the challenges & excitement of Polar research were highlighted. The exhibition included posters, models, Antarctic video films along with a lecture entitled “Understanding Past Climate from Antarctica” for school children & general public.
Recently, a special issue of Indian Journal of Marine Science (IJMS) is published to highlight the Indian activities being carried out at Antarctic & Southern Ocean under the aegis of IPY. IJMS is a quarterly journal highlighting Indian research in marine sciences & is published by NISCAIR (National Institute of Science Communication & Information Resources, New Delhi). A few pages are shown here that gives a flavor of this special issue published to commemorate the IPY.
