Monday, June 6 2005 10:07 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Kolkata: Indian scientists will do more research in Antarctica on the cause of increased global warming and harmful effects of solar radiation due to depletion of the Ozone layer.

The scientists will investigate how living organisms survived the rise in ultra-violet b (UVB) radiation caused by decrease in the Ozone layer, Ashis Hazra, senior Zoologist at the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) and one of the six members of the Core Committee on Antarctica and Southern Ocean Affairs (India), told sources in Kolkata.

Hazra, who was a member of the team in 1989-90 at the second Indian research station 'Maitri', said this time experiments would be carried out at a third station, to be set up about 300 km away from the earlier site.

The site, however, was yet to be finalised. The first Indian research station was located at 'Dakshin Gangotri'.

The latest round of research is to mark the silver jubilee year of the Indian scientific expedition to the icy continent, beginning in November/December this year.

At Antartica, Hazra said scientists would take up geological mapping, biological, environment and microbiological studies as also the physiological study of microorganisms. The Department of Ocean Development issues the guidelines.

The third Indian research station will be well equipped with laboratories, workshops, generators and helipads.

The outcome of the research will be placed at the meeting of the international scientific community on the occasion of the celebration of International Geophysical Year in 2007.

The venue of the meet is yet to be finalised.

The ZSI scientist said more experiments were also likely on birds in Antarctica, like the squa, albatross as also the penguins surviving in the extreme climate over the centuries.

"I conducted research on the squa birds in Antarctica and found that parental care existed among them.

"These birds also make distress calls just like mainland ones but it is a strange phenomenon for those remaining isolated from the rest of the world," he said.

The Indian team members, to be drawn from national laboratories, surveys and institutions, will start from Marmagao for Cape Town en route to the southern most continent in the world, aboard Polish or Swedish ice-breakers in November or December this year (2005).