Issued by India

Issued on Dec 19, 2009

Issued for : India Post, by issuing a commemorative Postage Stamp carrying the message to save Polar Regions is contributing to the effort to sensitize people to leave the Earth a better place for future generations.

Credits :
Stamp : Sankha Samantha
FDC & Cancellation : Alka Sharma

Type : Miniature Sheet, Mint condition

Colour : Multi colour

Denomination : 500 Paise each

Stamps Printed : 3.0 Million each

Miniature Sheets : 0.8 Million

Printing Process : Wet–offset

Printer : Security Printing Press, Hyderabad

About : 

• Earth’s Polar Regions, also known as Frigid Zones, at the North Pole and South Pole, are dominated by the polar ice caps, resting respectively on the Arctic Ocean and the continent of Antarctica.
• Polar weather influences climates in areas as far away as the tropics and changes will have effects across the world. Polar sea ice is currently diminishing, possibly as a result of anthropogenic Global warming. Some scientists have estimated that the Arctic basin will experience ice-free-summers by 2040 or even sooner, as the ice serves as a moderator of the planets climate, in part by deflecting heat radiation back into space. The breaking down of ice in the polar regions has resulted in an increase in temperature by 2.5 degree Celsius over the past 50 years.
• Decline in ice and snow in both the Polar regions is affecting human livelihood as well as local plant and animal life in the Arctic as well as global atmospheric circulation and sea level. Climate change affects various factors of the habitat of animals adapted to live in really extreme conditions and put population at risk.
• Several species of living things call the Polar regions their home from tiny lichens encrusting the rocky landscapes of the Arctic tundra to huge blue whales swimming through the frigid water of the southern Ocean. Some animals are only part time residents, migrating to warmer, lower latitudes during the winter months.
• Polar bears, penguins, seals, whales and walrus are just a few of the species living in these very cold regions. They are specially adapted to survive the extreme cold of the Polar regions.
• The Emperor penguins the world largest penguins could be pushed to the brink of extinction by the end of this century due to the melting of Antarctic Sea ice caused by global climate change. Similarly Polar bears in the Arctic, the largest bear species, also rely heavily on sea ice.
• “No man is an island” – said the poet. And today this stands as a scientific reality before us, proved by the interconnectivity of human life across the globe with all animal and plant species, the earth, the climate and the air around us. It is essential that the delicate balance of ecology be understood and maintained with a sense of commitment and responsibility.
• Text : Based on Material available in the internet.

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Issued by Pakistan

Issued on Oct 28, 1991

Designer : Ilyas Jillani (PSPC)

Type : Stamp, Postal Used

Denominations : Rs. 7/-

Colour : Multi colour

Size of Stamp : 44.5 x 32.5 mm

Size of Print : 40.5 x 28.5 mm

Perforation : 13C

Paper : 102 gsm dual purpose coated PVA gum

Quantity : 500,000

Number of stamps in a sheet : 12 (3 x 4 rows)

Process of Printing : Litho Offset

Printers : Pakistan Security Printing Corporation

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Issued by India

Issued on Jun 23, 1991

Description of Designs : The setenant set of two special postage stamps has been designed by ISP Nashik on the basis of material provided by the Department of Ocean Development. The design of the First Day Cover is also based on the material supplied by the Deptt. of Ocean Development. Cancellation has been designed by Ms. Nenu Gupta.

Type : Stamps, Postal Used

Colour : Two Colour Setenant

Denomination : 500 & 650 Paise

Overall size : 2.90 x 7.82 cms.

Print Size : 2.54 x 7.45 cms.

Perforation : 13 x 13

Paper : Imported Un W/M Gravure Coated Gummed Stamp Paper

Number printed : 10,00,000

Number per issue sheet : 28

Printing Process : Photogravure

Printed : India Security Press

About : 

• Antarctica is an island continent almost completely covered by ice. It is larger than Europe and even larger than India and China put together. It is covered by an ice cap in which 40% of world’s fresh water is locked up. It is the coldest, driest, windiest, stormiest and the least accessible of all the continents. Its ice cap is an ideal laboratory which preserves secrets hitherto unknown to man.
• India launched her first expedition to the continent in the year 1981 and established her first permanently manned station on the ice shelf in 1984 and named it as Dakshin Gangotri. It was shifted in 1988 to the rocky area in the Schirmacher hill ranges about 80 kms away. The new station named Maitri is well furnished with living space, laboratories, medical facilities and other amenities. It provides a viable base for carrying out scientific researches in a unique and pristine environment. A decade of Antarctic Science has already created a vibrant body of highly challenging and exciting scientific programmes contributed by scientists from a host of institutions in the country. The defence forces have made their inimitable contribution in supporting the scientific activities by developing the whole gamut of logistic facilities.
• Antarctica is governed by Antarctic Treaty which came into force on 23^rd June 1961. The Treaty has so far been acceded to by 39 member states of which 26 countries including India have consultative status. All decisions relating to Antarctica have to be taken with the consent of all the Consultative Parties. The treaty maintains that Antarctica is open to all countries for scientific research and is to be free of nuclear and military activities. It lays down stringent standards for environmental preservation, waste management, protection and preservation of the Antarctic marine life. India participates in all Consultative Party meetings of the Antarctic Treaty and also in all other decision making conferences relating to Antarctic such as the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research, Convention on Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources and meetings relating to Antarctic Mineral Resources Regime.
• Text : Courtesy Deptt. of Ocean Development.

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Issued by India

Issued on Jan 9, 1983

Issued for : Indian Posts & Telegraphs Department is privileged to issue a special stamp to commemorate the landing of the first Indian Scientific team on Antarctica.

Description of Designs : The stamp designed by India Security Press is based on the photograph (Courtesy : Department of Ocean Development) showing the Indian Scientists in their camp in Antarctica. The first day cover design comprises a collage of photographs showing different activities of the Expedition along with the map of the Antarctica. Cancellation has been designed by Charanjit Lal.

Type : Stamp, Mint Condition

Colour : Multi colour

Denomination : 100 Paise

Overall size : 3.91 x 2.90 cms.

Printing size : 3.55 x 2.54 cms.

Perforation : 13 x 13

Paper : Unwatermarked adhesive stamp paper

Number printed : 20,00,000

Number per issue sheet : 35

Printing process : Photogravure

Printed at : India Security Press

About : 

• The Department of Ocean Development was set up on 24^th July 1981, and within six months of its creation, it organised the first scientific expedition to Antarctica. A 21-member team, drawn from seven different institutions, with Dr. S. Z. Qasim as its leader left for Antarctica on 6^th December from Goa and successfully landed on the frozen continent on 9^th January 1982. After a stay of 10 days on Antarctica, the expedition returned to Goa. During the stay on Antarctica, as also during the sea cruise, substantial amount of scientific work was done on meteorology, glaciology, geomagnetism, geology, biology, radiowave propagation, pollution studies and also on physical, chemical, biological, geological and geophysical oceanography. A scientific station named “Dakshin Gangotri” was set up at Latitude 70º45’12”.963 South and Longitude 10º38’13”.618 East. An automatic weather data recording system powered by solar batteries was installed and left behind at Dakshin Gangotri.
• Antarctica provides a unique and unpolluted environment hitherto untouched by man. It, therefore, gives an ideal situation (datum point) for monitoring pollution elsewhere in the world. Antarctica influences global climate, and more particularly, the climate of the southern hemisphere. Its study would, therefore, add considerably to our knowledge of factors influencing the monsoons on which the economy of the country is critically dependent. The ice sheet in Antarctica originated, perhaps, more than 50 million years ago, and has continued since then completely undisturbed. It is at places over 3500 meters thick and cover more than 95% of the continents land area. It is, therefore, an extremely well-preserved repository of all types of materials fallen on earth such as, the fragments of cosmic bodies, nuclear products of cosmic rays, samples of entrapped air and minerals. A scientific study of this continent could help to decipher the ancient material found in the ice and will enable us to understand the global and cosmic phenomena that have been taking place over the past millenia.
• Almost 90% of the world’s ice is found on Antarctica. Therefore, it could provide a source of fresh water to many areas of world where water is scarce. The lines of forces in the earth’s magnetic field bend over the two poles. Hence, Antarctica provides an ideal location for observing interaction of the magnetic field and of charged particles from the sun. The waters around Antarctica are amongst the richest biological provinces of earth. The key organism is “Krill” – a small shrimp like creature, rich in protein. It is estimated that nearly 39 million tons, which is nearly half the total world fish catch in 1978, can be harvested annually without endangering the krill stocks. The history of Antarctica itself is a subject of great interest for geologists and geophysicists.
• (Text : Courtesy of Department of Ocean Development)

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Issued by Australia [Australian Antarctic Territory]

Issued on May 5, 1982

Issued for : Sir Douglas Mawson Centenary

Design : Sir Douglas Mawson, Australia‘s most famous Antarctic explorer, is depicted on the stamps honouring the centenary of his birth, against backgrounds relating to areas of the frozen continent with which his name is so closely associated. On the 27c stamp, a view of the ice plateau inland from Mawson Station stretches to the Masson, David and Casey ranges of the Framnes Mountains on the horizon. A map of the Australian Antarctic Territory forms the background of the 75c stamp.

Designed by : Ray Honisett [Mr. Ray Honisett was born in Perth, Western Australia and studied art at the Perth Technical College. He moved to Melbourne in 1951 where he worked as an illustrator/designer before heading for London in 1955. Mr. Honisett’s first Australian stamp design was a 6c stamp issued in 1970. His 1971 Christmas aerogramme was awarded the 1972 San Gabriele International Prize for Philatelic Art, given annually to the nation which issues the best postal item on a religious subject. In 1979 and again in 1980 he visited the mainland of Antarctica, and on a separate journey in 1980 he visited the Australian Antarctic station at Macquarie Island. Mr. Honisett was employed as a lecturer in illustration at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.]

Type : Stamp, Mint Condition

Colour : Multi colour

Denomination : 27 and 75 cents

Stamp size : 26 mm x 37.5 mm

Perforation : 13¾ x 13¼

Paper : APWH stamp paper

Sheet content : 100 (issued)

Printing process : photolithography on a five–colour Heidelberg Speedmaster press

Printer : Cambec Press, Melbourne

Name : Douglas Mawson

Born on May 5, 1882 at Shipley, West Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom

Died on Oct 14, 1958 at Brighton, South Australia

About : 

• Born in Yorkshire on 5 May 1882, Douglas Mawson was two years old when his family emigrated to Australia. Mawson was educated in Sydney, and completed degrees in engineering and science. At Sydney University he encountered the geologist Professor T. W. Edgeworth David, who stimulated his interest in exploration. A portrait of Edgeworth David was included in the 1968 Famous Australians stamp booklet issue.
  
• Mawson subsequently joined the scientific staff of the 1907-1909 British Antarctic expedition led by Ernest Shackleton. During this first visit to the Antarctic, Mawson was a member of the group including Edgeworth David and Forbes Mackay which made the first ascent of Mt Erebus, an active volcano. Mawson, Edgeworth David and Mackay journeyed on to become the first men to reach the South Magnetic Pole. Using a string attached to the camera trigger, a photograph was taken of the three men with the Union Jack at the approximate mean position of the South Magnetic Pole. The design for definitive AAT stamps issued in 1959 was based on this photograph. The hazardous trek to the Pole and back to the expedition ship ‘Nimrod‘ took some four months. The ‘Nimrod’ was illustrated as part of the Ships of the Antarctic stamp series introduced in 1979.
  
• Following his experience with the Shackleton expedition, Mawson decided to organise an Australian expedition to explore the area directly south of Australia. The steamship ‘Aurora‘ was purchased with funds provided by Federal and State governments and private donations, and the Australasian Antarctic expedition sailed from Hobart on 2 December 1911. Douglas Mawson, the leader of the expedition, was then aged 29.
  
• Bases were established en route on Macquarie Island and the Shackleton Ice Shelf in Queen Mary Land. The main base was set up at Commonwealth Bay, in King George V Land. The hut built as winter quarters for the 18 members of the main base party still remains intact, although in need of restoration and regular maintenance.
  
• Members of the expedition proceeded to map over 1,000 km of coastline, and to collect valuable scientific information. Radio was used to relay messages from Commonwealth Bay to Australia via Macquarie Island, the first transmission from Antarctica.
  
• While carrying out part of the exploration and survey work of the expedition, Mawson himself very nearly perished. With two companions, B.E.S. Ninnis and Xavier Mertz, Mawson was sledging eastward from Commonwealth Bay. Ninnis was killed when he fell into a crevasse, and Mertz died of a disease now assumed to be Hypervitaminosis A, caused by eating the livers of the sledge dogs, and aggravated by hunger and cold. Mawson, also suffering from disease, with little food and equipment, faced a solitary trek of almost 200 km back to the main base. He arrived back at Commonwealth Bay, after a harrowing journey which included hauling himself out of a crevasse, to find that the ‘Aurora’ had just sailed. Sir Edmund Hillary has described this feat as “probably the greatest story of lone survival in Polar exploration“ [Lennard Bickel. This accursed land. Foreword by Sir Edmund Hillary]. Mawson with six others was left to spend another winter at the Hut. The party was finally relieved m December 1913, and Douglas Mawson was knighted on his return to Australia. A portrait of Sir Douglas was depicted on an AAT postage stamp issued in 1961 to commemorate the 50^th anniversary of the 1911-1914 Australasian Antarctic expedition.
  
• Sir Douglas Mawson returned to Antarctica in 1929 as leader of the British Australian New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition (BANZARE). During the summers of 1929-1930 and 1930-1931 the BANZARE explored and mapped much new territory south of Australia. British sovereignty was proclaimed at seven localities, and MacRobertson and Princess Elizabeth Lands were discovered and named.
  
• Among other activities in later years, Sir Douglas remained involved in Antarctic affairs, particularly the setting up of ANARE, the Australian National Antarctic Research Expedition. The first permanent ANARE station on the Antarctic mainland was named Mawson, in his honour. The Mawson Institute for Polar Research established at Adelaide University in 1959 commemorated Douglas Mawson‘s long connection with the University, as Professor of Geology from 1920 until his retirement in 1952. He died in Adelaide on 14 October 1958, and was accorded a State funeral.

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Issued by Japan

Issued on November 20, 1965

Issued for : Since the 6^th expeditionary party returned from the Antarctic in 1962, on party from Japan has been in the area; but the expedition is re-opened in 1965, and the party goes to the Antarctic on November 20 on board the Fuji, newly-built modern ship for observation.

Design : Map of Antarctica, aurora and the observation ship “Fuji“.

Designer : Iwao Norimatsu

Colour : Reddish yellow, blue and dark blue

Type : Stamp, Postal Used

Denomination : Ten yen

Size of Impression : 33 mm x 22.5 mm

Paper : White without watermark

Quantity Issued : 25.500,000 stamps

Sheet Composition : 20 (5 x 4) stamps per sheet

Printing Process : Photogravure

About : 

• Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition, which was suspended since the close of its sixth winter in 1962, is now to be resumed with the new observation ship “Fuji” leaving Tokyo on November 20, 1965.

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