India Joins Forces: Regulating Antarctic Tourism with Global Partners
The MoES is the host a of the 46th ATCM as well as the 26th CEP meeting. Such ground-breaking summits, hosted in Kochi, Kerala from 20th May to 30th May, endeavor to tackle the problem of unchecked tourism to Antarctica, which could imperil its unique environmental ecosystem.
India, in tandem with other nations that hold similar views and interests, is supporting tourism to be governed well in Antarctica. The Minister Secretary of the Department of Earth Sciences, M Ravichandran, had voiced the concern that let the absence of effective regulation, there is much to fear as uncontrolled tourism does present tough challenges. Additionally, he indicated to the media that the idea of allowing Indians to visit Indian research stations in Antarctica was on the cards, which signify the precision of maintenance of these stations and the need of the strict waste management programmes existing there.
It currently costs about INR 1 crore per researcher to get to Antarctica. India has two active research stations, named Maitri and Bharati, in which the Indian researcher operate. The government spends around Rs. 150 crore to Rs. 200 crore on yearly basis for running of these bases. The main speaker stressed the necessity of how to keep these stations clean, and bring any waste into the mainland.
Antarctica has been gaining more and more guests in, reaching a point where every year thousands of tourists, tourists go there. This drawback will be solved through the ATCM’s mission of implementing rules for tourists who want to explore Antarctica. In Antarctica, tourism as a whole has begun in the 1950’s, but like a strong phenomen flux, the number of cruise-only visitors has been grossed since then – above 32,000 passengers, and the number of people from different landing ship has crossed 71,000 people based on International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO)
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