With the hustle and bustle of city life, and air pollution, mountains have become places that people go to for a getaway. However, what most forget is that we need to keep the ecology intact, and this is something we are focusing on this year,” said Colonel (retd) Vijay Singh, president of the Indian Mountaineering Foundation (IMF) at the International Mountain Day on December 11.
Anchored in the theme ‘restore the mountain ecosystem’, the IMF lays emphasis on the need to preserve the ecosystem and ensure ethical mountaineering. “Mountains and mountaineering have become rather commercialised. People are more interested in making money than keeping the Himalayas clean. We wanted to raise awareness for people who go trekking and mountaineering often,” says Singh.
The institute holds seminars and debates on the importance of environmental conservation to raise awareness and encourage more people to indulge in adventure activities. “I believe it is important to embark on adventure activities such as rock climbing or mountain climbing because one is much closer to nature than one is otherwise. Once one sees it up close, they connect to it in a better manner and understand the importance of its preservation,” says the IMF president.
Ace mountaineer Colonel Ranveer Singh Jamwal, the first Indian to climb the Seven Summits and Mount Everest three times, says adventure, or specifically mountaineering, has a big impact on the world. “If I ask anyone who is the first guy who did paragliding, they wouldn’t know. However, even today people recall and recognise the first Mount Everest climbers Tenzing Norgay and Sir Edmund Hillary,” he says.
Jamwal recently completed ‘Har Shikhar Tiranga’—along with his team, he climbed the highest climbable mountains in all the 28 states of India in 351 days. Being the first Indian to do so, he shared titbits of his long journey as one of the speakers at the seminar. He, however, pointed out that there aren’t many women in mountaineering groups, and he would like to change this. “While there is no discrimination between recruiting men and women in the mountaineering troops, there are fewer women in these troops. My institution, NIMAS, offers courses for these activities that are gender neutral. We want an equal number of men and women to join the expeditions,” he says.
Singh pointed out that he has some plans for this endeavour this year. “We have a lot of male mountain guides and trekking guides. The IMF wants to give opportunities to train women as trekking guides and mountain guides. It could help them become professionals and they could start their own tour companies or become tour operators. Within a year, we have planned to train a maximum of 5,000 young girls from all over India. Trekking is not only restricted to the Himalayas. When you go to Maharashtra, you will find beautiful hills around Pune. Other states have prominent trekking places too. We are looking forward to starting this plan for the youth. It not only generates job opportunities, but also helps learn more about nature,” he adds.