The recently commissioned Sindhu Sadhana is India’s most sophisticated research vessel to date, experts say.
Even though it has a coastline of more than 7,500 kilometers, India’s scientific marine exploration is still in its infancy, experts say.
With an expansive coastline stretching from Gujarat to West Bengal and a very large exclusive economic zone, exploiting it in a sustainable manner is very important for India, they say.
The 80-meter-long Sindhu Sadhana, equipped with 10 laboratories, is right now at the forefront of that effort.
Made at a cost of Rs 176 crore, this floating laboratory can be home to 30 scientists who can take month-long cruises to map India’s blue wealth.
“I think the depths of this ocean have so many possibilities for human welfare, a lot has been investigated but a lot more needs to be done,” Dr Harsh Vardhan, Minister for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences said.
“I think our scientists are doing a great job to understand global warming, climate change and finding new sources of energy like gas hydrates,” he said.
Diving deep below the Indian Ocean, scientists collect the samples of sea water to understand how pollution is affecting the marine life.
They study temperature profiles of water and look at its chemical composition to see if over exploitation is hurting the marine ecosystem.
The global climate is changing and how will it impact the monsoon, considered India’s life line, is also being investigated all on small budgets by teams of scientists.
Dr SWA Naqvi, Director, National Institute of Oceanography, Goa said, “Oceans play the most crucial role in regulating the climate including the monsoons.”
“How human induced climate change is affecting the oceans – things like ocean acidification, ocean de-oxygenation – and all of this has a very serious impact on how oceans function,” he said.
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