Dakshin Gangotri

thumb|310x310px| Dakshin Gangotri station

thumb|310x310px|A member of 7th Indian Antarctic Expedition Team at Dakshin Gangotri. (26 January 1988)

Dakshin Gangotri was the first scientific base station of India situated in Antarctica, part of the Indian Antarctic Programme. It is located at a distance of from the South Pole. It is currently being used as a supply base and transit camp. The base is named after Dakshin Gangotri Glacier.

It was established during the third Indian expedition to Antarctica in 1983–84. This was the first time an Indian team spent a winter in Antarctica to carry out scientific works. The station was built in eight weeks by an 81-member team that included geologist Sudipta Sengupta. Construction was completed late into January 1984 with help from the Indian army and Indian Republic Day was celebrated at the station along with the Soviets and East Germans. It was built using pre-fabricated timber, and was intended as a permanent station. It had an Inmarsat communication terminal, as well as an amateur radio station.

An automatic weather recording station, powered by solar energy was set up at the Dakshin Gangotri. Apart from this, the station was used to conduct tests on radio waves in Antarctica.

In 1984, The first Indian post office in Antarctica was established at Dakshin Gangotri and Meteorologist G. Sudhakar Rao was named as the first Indian postmaster in Antarctica in 1988.

Conversion to supply base and replacement

It was abandoned in 1988–1989 after it was submerged in ice. It was succeeded by the Maitri research station, which was set up in a moderate climatic zone at a distance of 90 km and made operational in 1990. Dakshin Gangotri was finally decommissioned on 25 February 1990 and subsequently turned into a supply base.

In 1991, the eleventh Indian Scientific Expedition to Antarctica conducted geomagnetic observations simultaneously at Dakshin Gangotri and Maitri.

In 2008, India set up its first permanent research base on the Arctic Ocean, Himadri.

In 2012, a third research station, the Bharati was made operational, although only for testing.