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I
celebrated our India's 60th independence day @ Illulisat.
Green Land (Arctic)
Since childhood, I always had a passion to travel
to various places within and outside India by covering all the
continents. I had finished covering five out of the
seven continents when last year an idea struck me: Why
not cover Arctic first and then Antarctic?
So, I took this adventure trip
to the Arctic from Chennai. I first flew to Copenhagen via Helsinki. The next morning, I took Air Green
Land where
I landed at Kangerlussaq Airport (north Greenland).
The travel time between Copenhagen
and Kangerlussaq is 4 ½ hours.
We have to fly over Iceland.
The time difference between Copenhagen
and Greenland
is four hours (minus). As most of you are aware, Greenland
is the largest island in the world.
Kangerlussaq is the only airport
in north Greenland
(Arctic region) which can facilitate landing and take-off
of bigger aircraft like Airbus etc. This airport was
developed in 1960 by US Defence. The population of Kangerlussaq
is 400 and 50 per cent of them are employed by the airport
authorities. A 3-star hotel is attached to the Kangerlussaq Airport called, Hotel
Kangerlussaq. Greenland is
the only Arctic Island in the world.
During World War-II, a northern
air route was desperately needed to ferry planes from
the US to Britain. Denmark was then occupied by Germany
and the Americans were responsible for the defence
of Greenland. A survey
of Greenland found two locations suitable for an airfield.
The location selected was Stromfjord
in September 1941 and work began with the code name
Blue West Eight. In 1992, the airport was handed over
by the Americans to the Home Rule Government. Technically
Greenland is administered by Denmark.
Ice cap visit:
 From the airport
we took a specially designed vehicle to ice cap which
is around 40 km east of the airport; en route we saw
a herd of musk ox, reindeer, Arctic ranger, and also
a few falcons and ravens. There were also debris of
an air crash which was still not removed and kept for
tourists to take back home some pieces of aluminum.
The last polar bear sighted was
reportedly killed by two American soldiers in Kangerlussaq
with the help of an iron rod in 1960 and after that
no polar bear has been sighted in Kangerlussaq.
According to the Greenland adventure tour operator, I am the second
Indian to explore Arctic Greenland on an exploration
trip
to the eastern Ice Cap for about 2 km. And I am definitely
the first Chennaivasi to do so.
From east of Kangerlussaq,
for a 500 km stretch, one can find ice and only ice
spread and covered - great ice-hills and ice valleys.
Most of my co-tourists asked whether I had come alone
from India.
They were surprised to know that I had come alone. A
Swede asked me the same question twice.
This trip took roughly around eight
hours, including the trekking.
Nature and universal
ritual
 The Arctic is roughly around 2.2 million sq km, out
of which only 5,00,000 km is
without ice cap. The ice cap was formed millions of
years ago and the depth is about 3,500 mtrs.
In the same belt, around 2.4 million years ago, there
were forest zones. Because of which now people are exploring
for black gold (crude oil) and some mineral deposits.
In the ice one can find ponds,
lakes and rivers too. Huge ranges of ice fjords can
move up to 40 mtrs per day. When air escapes from ice fjords, you
get a thunderous sound followed by pushing and falling
of icebergs into the sea. Titanic was hit by and iceberg
produced from Sermermiut (which means Southern Ice Cap in Greenlander’s
language).
During June-August, tourists throng
the place to see the ice cap melting, and only during
this season you can see some shrubs and plants growing
for a very short time. Our guide told us, “Now
you can see a forest of Greenland,” and then showed
us a small patch of shrubs wherein you can find some
grass cotton flowers, Arctic blue herbal flowers, Niviarsiaq - a beautiful purple flower (which in Greenlandic
language means young unmarried maiden).
 These fauna and
flora can be seen only during summer. There are no trees
in Greenland.
The seagulls are almost double
the size of the Australian ones and this is due to the
abundant availability of fish and sea food. During summer,
the sun never sets, which is why it is called the ‘Land
of the Midnight Sun’ and in the winter, it is
the other way round, where you cannot see the sun.
One can find 320 degrees of light
in the spectrum of the horizon in Arctic Greenland.
When wind blows, the iceberg’s
profile and contour change drastically, and likewise,
when the lighting changes, the colour
of the iceberg and ice fjords change. In Illulisat,
the ice fjords produce 20 million tonnes
of ice every day and push the same into the Atlantic
Ocean in various sizes of icebergs and particles, which
is the water consumption of one year of New
York City.
The Arctic
has 10 per cent of the world’s fresh water stock.
An iceberg which was pushed from Illulisat
ice fjord into the Atlantic Ocean
was the one that hit Titanic.
 In general, the
Arctic is a place of
God-made beauty and you cannot find such a beautiful
place in any part of the world. Every square inch of
the Arctic land is so beautiful and is an architecture
fully made by the Almighty. If you were to visit this
place once in your lifetime, the memory will stay in
your mind forever. You can also experience pin-drop
silence in most parts of the Arctic, in which silence one can experience a pleasant
sound which relaxes your body, mind and soul.
During winter, which is from November
1 to January 13, you will not see daylight here. After
a dark winter, the first and fresh sun is witnessed
by locals on January 13. Surprising, isn’t it?
On January 13, the Illulisat
people go to the mountains to have the first glimpse
of new sun every year and on January 14,
the sun can be seen in the plains.
We, Indians celebrate Bhogi on the same day, and on 14th Jan we celebrate
Pongal/Sankranti and pray
to the Sun God. And the Egyptians too revered the same
Sun God: They did not even cover their temples with
roofs in order to invite the Sun God into their temples.
This is a clear example that Vedic life originated from
the Arctic along with the food cycle.
According to Vedic life, the origin
of living being has evolved and originated from the
Arctic and from where the entire world spread, with
all kinds of living beings, including human beings.
Hence, the first food chain was formed in the Arctic.
In the Arctic,
the low temperature is not really intense and harmful
as it is suppose to be when you go by the reading of
the temperature. For eg.,
in Copenhagen, 2 degrees
Celsius is more intense than minus 25 degrees of the
Arctic; this is due to the moisture content in the air
in Copenhagen.
In the Arctic, the
air is dry and hence it is not harsh though the temperature
is minus 25 degrees.
 So, if we travel
to the Arctic, it is
not as scary (the cold) as we might assume. If we carry
some good thermal wear, it is sufficient to go and enjoy
the beauty of the Arctic northern Greenland.
Why I stress on northern Greenland is because the Arctic
Circle is in northern Greenland and not southern Greenland
such as Nuuk, the capital
of Greenland, and other
places. The highest population in Greenland
is in Nuuk, which is
17,000. The third highest population is in Illulisat.
Illulisat: The next morning, we took a Dash
7 aircraft of Air
Green Land
and landed in Illulisat which
is further north of Greenland,
after 1½ hours of travel. Illulisat
means iceberg in Greenlander’s language. Illulisat
is the third largest town in Greenland
the port in Illulisat is called
Jakobshaven (in Greenlandic ‘haven’ means
‘port’).
This port was found in1741. A Zion church was
constructed during 1779 in Illulisat.
Here the population is around 4,500, of which 1,000
people work for the shrimp and fish processing plant
at the Port of Illulisat. Fishing is
the only major economic work in Illulisat.
Everyday a fisherman is assured of 500 kg catch for
which the government pays 6 Danish Kroner
per kg. The fish is then sold at Denmark
@ 110 Kroner per kg. Denmark gives 3 billion Kroner per year to Greenland
to meet the deficit budget of this country.
 The Government of Greenland and Denmark
is ready to offer free of cost huge fishing trawlers
to the locals, but the locals refrain from taking such
grants fearing some riders which means they need to
work extra hours, which they don’t desire to do
so. Greenland is planning
to open a university in Nuuk
or Kangerlussaq, As of now, they don’t have any
colleges or institutions to educate engineering graduates,
or heath education. Most doctors and engineers travel
from Denmark to Greenland
to carry out their vocation mostly on a part-time basis.
One cannot find a thief in Illulisat, the reason is he/she will be caught before they can
escape.
Sermermiut:
You can find an abandoned settlement
in this place called Sermermut.
This settlement is around 4,000 years old. Close to
this place you have a place called Bitches Gorge. In
this place, the older generation would go and commit
suicide to pave way for the availability of food for
the younger generation. This shows that they had shortage
of food (Bitches Gorge is a 100 per cent translation
from Danish language.)
 In 2004, Sermermiut was identified as a world heritage location
by UNESCO. Here the houses were built with rock and
the main structure used for stability is the whale’s
spine. Whale skin was used to for the roof to prevent
rainwater from entering the house and also to act as
a good insulation, and thus avoiding atmospheric temperature
inside the house. The entrance to the house has a drift
below, which is designed in such a way as to prevent
cold air from coming in. Seeing the intelligence of
the people of olden days, suddenly a phrase popped up
in my mind: “When everything is there, man does
nothing. When nothing is there, man does everything.”
Which is also a moral for our younger
generation.
 Disco Bay: This is once
again a lovely place and is a feast to the eyes. The
seawater in Illulisat (Disco Bay)
is not frozen. In Ilullisat,
each and every iceberg and ice fjord changes colour
according to the lighting of the sun and the same iceberg
looks different during such changes. Here, the locals
believe that the Sun really does not melt the ice it
is only the air which is trapped in ice which is released
and in the process a thunderous sound comes and pushes
the icebergs into the sea. An iceberg can be to the
size of up to 310 ft in height above the sea level and
width will be more than a few thousand feet.
Midnight sailing: Midnight sailing in-between the icebergs in a boat cruise
gives a unique play of colours,
which one loves to do again and again. During night
sailing, the sun is still active with good lumens
which is a fantastic and unusual experience.
It will be too cold while sailing the temperature goes
down to minus 38 degrees Celsius.
Helicopter trip
to the glaciers: Illulisat Glacier is the
most productive glacier in the northern hemisphere.
It is 7 km wide and moves at a pace of 3,000 millimeter
per hour. Here it is really a feast to your eyes to
see such infinite amount of ice. The pilot takes you
in very low altitude to disturb the thousands of birds
below and it is really a spectacular view from a birds
eye view. Along the glacier’s edge, the helicopter
lands on the mountain for 30 minutes where one can enjoy
the fantastic scenery created by God.
 Food: On specific arrangements,
you can get Indian food in the Arctic
in some places. Otherwise, Greenlandic food is not edible,
as most of their food is either uncooked or partially
cooked. They eat raw sliced musk oxen meat, whale meat,
reindeer meat, seal meat. All these meats are red in
colour.
Whales: Hunting for whales
started by European whalers in the 16th century. The
introduction of bigger and stronger ships made it possible
to sail to Greenland and hunt for the whales. Whale oil was
used for lighting, lubrication and tanning purposes.
The whalers were interested in bow head whales. They
are a little slow moving and just one bow head whale
will provide 20–30 tonnes
of oil. One can imagine what the tonnage of meat will
be. Now hunting this category of whale is banned. Only
a few categories of whales are allowed for hunting.
Whale meat is red in colour.
Here the fishing harbour never
stinks as badly as in other places. This is due to the
ambient temperature which keeps the products fresh,
and never lets them decay. The dead ones are as fresh
as green salad.
Legal system in
Greenland:
 Greenland is the only place
in the world to legally permit whale hunting and consumption
by human beings. The legal system is very much lenient
as a murder convict gets only three years imprisonment.
The judge here is an unqualified person, the court is a small room which is like a tea
stall. The appeals court for any case is in Nuuk
where there is the Supreme Court of Greenland. If a
criminal is incorrigible even after such mild convictions,
he/she is sent to mainland (Denmark)
for correctional treatment. In general, Greenlanders
are loving and friendly people and very helpful.
Apart from the above trips, you
have so many other adventure, pleasure, pilgrimage and
relaxing trips to the Arctic.
The author can be contacted by email: pyromat@satyam.net.in
or by his phone: +91 44 24890009 or 24890710.
P
Sridhar |
