20 mountaineers scale the highest peaks in all 28 states to hoist the Indian flag
The expedition, which was started on October 16 of last year from Arunachal Pradesh, travelled across all of India's states for around 30,000 kilometres.
20 mountain climbers pulled out the amazing task of climbing all of the nation’s highest peaks and raising the flag atop each one. As part of the “Har Shikhar Tiranga” project, a pioneering trip, climbers from the National Institute of Mountaineering and Adventure Sports (NIMAS) in Arunachal Pradesh scaled the highest peaks in every Indian state.
The unusual expedition was a part of the “Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav,” a national holiday honouring India’s 75th anniversary of independence and timed to coincide with India’s G20 leadership.
Cloudburst in Sikkim
There were difficulties with the risky mission, though. The group of climbers who had just climbed Mt. Jongsong in Sikkim faced almost certain death after an unexpected cloudburst caused flash floods on October 3rd, making that night the most terrifying. “We had hardly sighed in relief of completing our mission when around 10 pm the first waters came gushing in. Our team managed to get out with our stuff in 10 minutes, and being mountaineers, our first instinct took us up the hills. And that window of 10 minutes and running up to the hills rather than down saved us, I think,” Colonel Ranveer Singh Jamwal, who was in charge of the mountaineering group, told news agency PTI.
The team encountered challenging terrain at the farthest reaches of the nation as they travelled across every part of it. “The expedition involved travelling across the country which came with challenges like unavailability of transportation, poor roads in many remote areas, security challenges in Maoist areas and also difficulty interacting with local communities due to language barriers,” he stated.
The mountaineers also learned, at great personal risk, that many of the highest peaks in many states are still unidentified. They claimed that an unnamed mountain in the Naina Devi Range is the highest point in the state of Punjab.
The expedition, which was started on October 16 of last year from Arunachal Pradesh, travelled across all of India’s states for around 30,000 kilometres, making it a first-of-its-kind experience in the nation’s history.
You might also have a look in – Kerala man trapped on mountain for 2 days without food & water rescued by Indian Army | WATCH
