India to set up research set up in Artic region

NEW DELHI: India will establish a permanent research facility in the Arctic region near the North Pole to carry out studies in several areas including climate change and glaciology.

"A permanent research set up will be established by Indian scientists at the international research facility in Ny-Alesund in Svalbard archipelago of Norway," Minister of Earth Science Kapil Sibal told the Lok Sabha in a written reply.

Most of the planned scientific studies in the Arctic are long term, he said.

The major areas of research in the Arctic pertain to climate change and paleoclimate; glaciology and geology; marine biology and microbiology, Sibal said.

He said the scientific work has been initiated in collaboration with Norwegian Polar Research Institute, Norway.

Fissures: Ground fissures have developed in some areas in Bundelkhand, particularly in Hamirpur district and also Badrinath area in Uttarakhand, Sibal said in reply to another question.
 
The fissures in Mauda tehsil of Hamirpur district is around 800 m in length and 60 cm wide, he said.

Sibal said cracks have been reported from Neelkanth Parvat in Badrinath area.

A three-member team of scientists from Geological Survey of India have been constituted to study the reported cracks in Bundelkhand, Sibal said.
 
CSIR: Eight posts of Directors are lying vacant in CSIR laboratories, Sibal said in reply to another query.
 
He said research work has not been hampered as structured administrative arrangements are in position in all CSIR labs.