City doctor on a unique Antarctica expedition

Dr Pradeep had been a part of the Limca World Record sailing expedition, where he along with few sailors, sailed from Chennai to Gopalpur on a catamaran boat covering nearly 10 coastlines.

As temperatures start plummeting in the country this week, spare a thought for Indians who are bracing themselves to live in the frigid tundra of Antarctica. This thirty third Indian expedition to Antartica has few distinctive features, one being the presence of Mettu Pradeep Reddy, a former doctor from Military Hospital, Trimulgherry. Dr Pradeep Reddy is the only medical doctor in the contingent of 25 Indians and is also the only one hailing from Andhra Pradesh.

For Antarctica, it's not only cold down there, it's also getting a little busy. The Antarctic summer is short and not particularly summery, but the two-month window sees the population in the continent rise from approximately 1,000 scientists over the winter to nearly 4,000 seasonal visitors, plus the mavericks, misfits and polar adventurers. Another unique feature about this expedition is that the team of this logistic community is meant for a longer duration for nearly 12- 15 months. The team would work from Bharathi Research Station of Antarctica, which is closer to the South Pole.

Dr Pradeep Reddy, an alumni of Kendriya Vidyalaya Trimulgherry had been serving the Indian Army in AMC for the past 27 years. He is a scholar in pediatric nephrology and a pass out from AIIMS Delhi. He was stationed in Military Hospital, Trimulgherry for a couple of years and on November 27 this year, he retired from the army. “This expedition has been something I had longed to do. I will have to live away from the country for atleast a year. So I decided to leave the army.”

This expedition may sound adventurous for many, but adventure is nothing alien to this 41-year-old doctor. Dr Pradeep had been a part of the Limca World Record sailing expedition, where he along with few sailors, sailed from Chennai to Gopalpur on a catamaran boat covering nearly 10 coastlines. Other achievements of Dr Pradeep includes scaling mountains like Gangotri III and Rudraganga.

Talking about his journey he said, “We have reached Goa and are right now at the National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research (NCAOR). By Friday, we will reach Mumbai. From there we will fly to South Africa and from there, we will take an ice breaker ship and make our way to the coldest desert in the world.”