World Earth Day 2026: An ISRO scientist who helped build India’s Antarctic base wants to tell you about it

Every year, April 22 arrives with the weight of a planet’s worth of problems, be it climate change, vanishing species, or dwindling clean water. But Earth Day has always worked best not through guilt, but through wonder. And that is precisely the spirit the National Science Centre (NSC) in New Delhi is aiming for on Wednesday.

On April 22, 2026, the NSC at Pragati Maidan will host a special open event to mark World Earth Day 2026, organised under the global theme "Our Power, Our Planet", a call to collective action that reminds us environmental progress depends not on any single government, but on all of us together.

The centrepiece of the day is a Popular Science Lecture titled "Exploring Antarctica: A Journey to the White Continent," delivered by Dr Amitava Sen Gupta, Honorary Distinguished Professor at the Department of Space, ISRO.  Dr Gupta was among the youngest members of India's first Antarctic Expedition in 1981–82, returned for the second expedition in 1982–83, and led the eighth expedition in 1988–89, the mission that set up India’s permanent Antarctic research station, Maitri. The lecture begins at 10 am, according to the schedule released by the Centre.

At 11 am, the NSC will host an Open House Quiz Contest for students, testing young minds on environmental science and Earth's biodiversity. The format is participatory and informal, exactly the kind of science outreach the NSC, which attracts over half a million visitors annually and counts Nobel laureates among its regular guests, is renowned for.

The event is free and open to students and science enthusiasts. However, you might need prior registrations after contacting the National Science Centre.