Despite international opposition, India is set to establish a base in a planned Antarctic protected area to research the prehistoric origins of a Hindu holy river.The new base would be built at the Larsemann Hills, in the middle of the proposed Antarctica Specially Managed Area or ASMA, which several nations have planned since 2000.
India is not among those nations, and is unlikely to accept a proposal to share an existing Australian base outside the area, officials said.
P.S. Goel, a senior official at India's Ocean Development Department said, "The Godavari (River) would have flowed there about 130 million years ago when the continent was part of the Gondwana land-mass." It is believed that most of the land masses in the Southern Hemisphere and India were once part of a massive super-continent called Gondwana.
