A group of 20 mountaineers have achieved the incredible feat of scaling all the highest points in the country to hoist the national flag on top of each peak. The climbers from the National Institute of Mountaineering and Adventure Sports ( NIMAS) in Arunachal Pradesh climbed the tallest peaks in each Indian state as a part of "Har Shikhar Tiranga" mission - a first-of-its-kind expedition.
The unique mission was a part of the “Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav”, the nationwide celebration commemorating the 75th year of Indian independence and aligning with India's G20 presidency.
However, the daring expedition was not without its challenges. The night of October 3 was the scariest as the team which had climbed Mt Jongsong in Sikkim just a day earlier faced near-certain death after a sudden cloudburst lead to flash floods. "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 led the team of mountaineers, told news agency PTI.
Traversing the length and breadth of the country, the team faced difficult terrains in the most remote corners. "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 said.
Risking their lives, the mountaineers also discovered that many of the highest peaks in states remain unnamed. The highest point of the state of Punjab is an unnamed located in the Naina Devi Range, they said.
The mission, which was launched from Arunachal Pradesh on October 16 last year, covered around 30,000 kms across all states of India becoming a one-of-its-kind adventure in the history of the country.
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