10 tribal students from Maharashtra will attempt to scale Mount Everest

Trained at various institutes across the country over the past eight months, 10 tribal students, including three girls, from Class 10 and 12 are all set to scale the Mount Everest. The students will leave for the expedition on Thursday, and are expected to complete it in eight weeks.

Raja Dayanidhi, project director, Integrated Tribal Development Project of Chandrapur, said the idea was to tap the potential of tribal students from state-run residential schools in the district. The department sought applications from interested students from eight tribal residential schools. Forty-seven students were selected for basic training at a private institute at Wardha for two months. The 27 students who made it to the next round were then trained by Shekhar Babu, who has scaled the Mount Everest six times. Babu is also known for guiding Malavath Poorna, who in 2014 became the youngest woman to scale the peak.

The students also underwent a 20-day training at the central government-run Himalayan Mountaineering Institute in Darjeeling, where they were taught to use mountaineering gear, basics of camping and climate acclimatization, along with physical training at 14000 ft.

“We are confident about their success, as they got A-plus grade in both the institutes, which is rare. They have unparalleled physical capacity and perseverance,” said Dayanidhi, who has now been transferred as the CEO of Gondia.

The students also took their Class 10 and 12 exams last month. “The girls from the team wanted to treated on a par with boys. The parents of all of them were very co-operative,” he said.

Indu Kannake, 19, one of the three girls selected for the expedition, said, “Having played handball on state level, I thought mountaineering was like any other sport. Only after getting trained at -20 degrees Celsius, I realised how tough it was.”

“The state government, which has named this project as Mission Shaurya, has decided to scale such initiatives to promote talent in various fields amongst tribal youth,” said Manisha Verma, principal secretary, tribal development department.