President Kovind Praises Tribal Teen Mountaineers From Chandrapur

New Delhi, 27 June:  Five teen tribal students from Ashram schools of Chandrapur, who created History by summiting Mount Everest, were felicitated at the hands of the President, Shri Ramnath Kovind here today.

In a function held at Rashtrapati Bhavan, the President, Shri Ramnath Kovind felicitated all the five teenagers creating history, Manisha Dhuvre, Pramesh Ale, Umakant Madavi, Kavidas Katmode and Vikas Mahadev Soyam. He congratulated the students for summiting Mount Everest, the highest peak.  He gave a patient ear to the difficulties encountered in accomplishing this Herculean task and lauded their efforts, wishing them for their future endeavors.

The Team behind realizing this dream through the eyes of the students included, Shri Vishnu Savara, Minister of Tribal Development, Mrs. Manisha Verma, Principal Secretary, Tribal Development Department, Shri Ashutosh Salil, Collector Chandrapur, Deputy Secretary, Shri Subarao Narayan Shinde, Tribal Development Department and Shri Keshav Bawankar, Project Officer, Chandrapur. All these dignitaries and senior officers accompanied these students to Rashtrapati Bhavan.

The students were part of the 10-student ‘Mission Shaurya – Unleashing the Power Within’ expedition dispatched from Chandrapur to summit Mount Everest. The Mission was conceived as a unique initiative by the Tribal Development Department, Government of Maharashtra and District Administration of Chandrapur, to provide an opportunity to tribal youth in government ashrams schools to dream big and to realize their highest potential.

The Principal Secretary, Ms Manisha Verma said, these tribal students had never seen the world outside Chandrapur. They were restricted to the District only, but with this unique initiative, they have achieved an impossible feat and could explore the world outside the district. The temperature in Chandrapur reaches 48 degrees Celsius, but they scaled Mount Everest with a temperature of -40 degrees (extreme freezing conditions), which is commendable. The students are very happy and feel more confident today, she added.

Mission Shaurya began in August 2017 and within a short span of ten months, all these students were rigorously trained at Wardha, Hyderabad and Himachal Mountaineering Institute in Darjeeling. Initially 50 students were selected and in the final round of advanced training, 10 were shortlisted for this herculean task. However, five students were unable to scale the highest summit.  

“The feat is more significant since the students did not even know the name of the highest summit in the world before they were selected for the task an year ago. These students had never stepped out of Chandrapur in their lives,” informed the District Collector, Ashutosh Salil.  ‘The administration took great efforts to prepare tribal students for the Everest expedition over the last one year. However, the Officer did not forget to commend the efforts of rest of the five students who could not make it to the summit.  The students- Indu Kannake, Chhaya Atram, Akshay Atram, Akash Madavi and Shubham Pendare, though could not summit, however, they proved very helpful in helping other students by stepping down to 21000 feet and helping other injured mountaineers added Ms Verma.

Teen Mountaineers To Meet the Prime Minister on 29^th

The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi had taken cognizance of these tribal students while addressing the Nation through ‘Mann Ki Baat’. These students would meet the prime minister and seek his blessings on Friday, the 29^th of June.

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