A video of a climber scaling a high fort wall without safety harnesses has impressed viewers. The video features Jyoti Raju - a self-taught solo climber whose ability to scale walls without any aid or support has earned him the moniker of "Kothi Raju" or "Monkey Man". Mr Raju is famous for scaling the Chitradurga Fort in Karnataka with his bare hands and without a safety harness - an action he performs for the entertainment of visitors.
IAS officer Salma Fahim shared a video of the famous 'Monkey Man' on Twitter this Sunday. The video, filmed in January, shows him scaling a wall of Chitradurga Fort without any safety measures - even stopping mid-way to perform a stunt that earned him loud applause from viewers.
"Had met 'Karnataka's spiderman' aka Monkey Man at Chitradurga Fort this Jan. He is a self taught rock climber who climbs without any support or props," wrote Ms Fahim while sharing the video. She added that the rock climber hopes to scale the Angel Falls in Venezuela some day.
Had met 'Karnataka's spiderman' aka Monkey Man at Chitradurga Fort this Jan. He is a self taught rock climber who climbs without any support or props. He dreams of scaling the Angel Falls in Venezuela someday. As they say "Follow your dreams, they know the way". pic.twitter.com/XKMaxEjVYC
— Salma Fahim (@SalmaFahimIAS) May 10, 2020
The video has collected over 9,000 views and a ton of amazed comments on the microblogging platform.
Have seen him live climbing the rock here at Chitradurga fort few yrs back.. Marvelous skills, should get govt support & help!
— Bharathi M Kumar (@BharathiKumar4) May 10, 2020
Anyone could explain that how he managed to beat gravity ??
— Aditya Chaudhary (@IamAaaditya) May 10, 2020
I guessing he was climbing with bare hands and normal shoes.
"I am a self-learnt climber. I climbed the Chitradurga fort for the first time when I was 18, and I wanted to kill myself then. Instead, I got applause from people watching me climb. Something in me told me I can set a mark in this world, and I decided to make climbing my passion," Mr Raju said in an interview to The New Indian Express last year.
He hopes to scale Angel Falls in Venezuela - the world's highest, uninterrupted waterfall - soon.
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