- At Chang La in the Himalayas, at a height of 17,300 feet, there is a storage facility with over 5,000 seed accessions.
- One accession consists of a set of seeds of one species collected from different locations or different populations.
- The vault is a joint venture of the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (under ICAR) and the Defence Institute of High Altitude Research (under DRDO). When a seed needs to be stored for a few years, maintaining it at just 10 degree Celsius is enough.
- But in the long run, for 10 to 20 years, they need to be kept at a minus 15 to minus 20 degree Celsius (range). Chang La has a prevalent temperature in this sub-zero range.
Source: The Hindu and DownToEarth
