Nagpur: Four students of two tribal ashram (residential) schools Chandrapur, Maharashtra, created history on May 16 when they climbed Mount Everest.
They are the first tribal students from India to scale the tallest mountain peak in the world. These students hadn’t heard of Mount Everest before the authorities approached them with the idea. They were among the 10 tribal students from various government asharam schools in Chandrapur selected under a joint initiative of Maharashtra Tribal Department and Chandrapur Collectorate called ‘Mission Shaurya’ to conquer Mount Everest.
The successful students are Umakant Madavi, 19, Parmesh Aale, 19, and Manisha Dhurve, 18, from Devada asharam school and Kavidas Katmode, 18, from Jivati asharam school. While Kavidas and Umakant reached the summit at 3:25 am, Parmesh and Manisha reached an hour late, Chandrapur Collector Ashutosh Salil told The Indian Express.
Salil also said, “Two others — Vikas Soyam and Indu Kannake will make an attempt for the summit on May 17 and 18, respectively. The four successful students will return to the base camp by May 16 night.”
The collector further said that Chhaya Atram and Aakash Madavi had to return to Chandrapur after they suffered “altitude sickness.” The remaining two Akshay Atram and Vikas Soyam may also subsequently attempt depending on whether mountaineering expert Shekhar Babu takes a favorable call after considering their fitness and weather conditions, he added.
All the 10 students had undergone rigorous training for 18 months at various places before embarking on the Everest mission from the Chinese side.