IIT Student-Scientist Meets With Tragic End During Ambitious Expedition To Antarctica

A 24 year-old Indian student-scientist from IIT Bhubaneswar met with a tragic end during an ambitious Scientific Expedition to Antarctica.

Hailing from a village in West Bengal, Subhajit Sen, who was part of the 37th Indian Scientific Expedition died in an accident in AntarcticaWednesday near Indian research station Maitri, the National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research (NCAOR) said, reported The Indian Express.

NCAOR is the nodal agency for the annual expedition under the Ministry of Earth Sciences. His tragic death came even as the convoy operations were nearing completion and the vessel was expected to sail back to India soon. Flight operations from Antarctica are suspended after February. Convoy operations are planned only during summers in Antarctica, i.e March.

This month, the commander of a Spanish navy research ship had died in Antarctica after apparently falling overboard. According to a Guardianreport, the captain had disappeared when the ship was near the Juan Carlos 1 research base on Livingstone Island.Later, Spain’s ministry of defence said a search and rescue operation was launched using “all available resources” but the body of the 53-year-old sailor was recovered from the sea six hours later.

There have been incidents in the past when scientists accidentally stepped onto hidden crevices during convoy operations, escaping narrowly. According to reports, at least four Indian scientists have died in previous accidents in Antarctica, while another scientist died of a heart attack.

The Indian student-scientist, Sen met with an accident late Tuesday while travelling on the Indian Envoy route to Maitri station and suffered severe trauma.

 “Sen met with an accident during convoy operations at Ice Shelf (the last point where the vessel can go) and suffered major trauma on late evening ofMarch 26. Though he was immediately given medical aid at the expedition vessel, where doctors tried to revive him, it went in vain and he died within an hour,” said , said M Ravichandran, director of Goa-based NCAOR, as quoted by The Indian Express.

“This is the most critical part of the expedition as the researchers are transporting their materials over ice,” the report quoted a senior scientist with the Department of Plant Sciences at Central University of Punjab, who was part of the 36th expedition team.

 Sen was selected for the expedition on account of a research project he had undertaken —“Deformation — Fabric in sub-glacial till exposed Schirmacher oasis” — as part of a short-term research team during the ongoing expedition, from November 2017 and April 2018, the report said.