Noted mountaineers of yesteryears felicitated in Kolkata

The veteran mountaineers, most of them in their seventies and eighties, were leaders who carved out the trail of adventure in West Bengal more than five decades ago.

The felicitation programme, at the  Press Club auditorium recently, was  preceded by  an  illustrated lecture on Adventure Sports,  in memory of noted rock climber Gautam Kanjilal who died last June.

It was delivered by former Principal of  Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, Darjeeling, West Bengal, and  National  Institute of Mountaineering  & Adventure Sports at Dirang,  Arunachal Pradesh, Colonel Gulshan Chadha.

Colonel Chadha, a noted mountaineer himself,  spoke about the early days of mountaineering in West Bengal  and scope of adventure activities in Arunachal Pradesh.

As the  fore-runners of mountaineering in West Bengal entered  the dais,  a packed Press Club hall clapped and gave a standing ovation to pay their regards .

Those who were  felicitated  included  one of the doyens of  adventure activities in the state, 84 year old Chanchal Mitra, who was the leader of  the Tirsuli expedition organized by the Himalayan Association.

The team was the first to ascend a virgin  peak of over 23,000 feet in 1966. There was Bhanu Banerjee, 83, who, besides being the first Indian summiter of Nilgiri Parbat in Garhwal Himalaya way back in 1962, took part in many adventure activities with  Sir Edmund Hillary in the late fifties and early sixties  of last century.

Bidyut Sarkar, who, besides being one of the first Indian summiters of Uja Tirche in 1973 and first ever summiter of  Bomba Dhura, is the first Indian to complete a solo  trans-Himalayan expedition from Ladakh to Arunachal in 1976.

That women did not lag behind men as rock climbers was also amply proved at the ceremony.

Swapna Chowdhury, 70,  was a member of the first women mountaineering expedition to Ronti from eastern India in 1967.

Ava Ghosh, 83, was also considered a pioneer of women adventure activities in the state.

Other senior climbers who were also felicitated for their achievements during the sixties, seventies  and eighties in the last century were Nirapada Mullick, Sisir Ghosh, Samarendrsa Natha Dhar, Vijay Dutta, Pranesh Chowdhury, Shyamal  Chakrabarty, Lakshmi Datta (Paul), Ujjwal Ganguly, Rama Paul ( Sengupta), Arati Dey and Rabin Banerjee.

Five veteran mountaineers  - Birendra Nath Sarkar, Netai Roy, Kankan Roy, Ashish Roy Chowdhury and Jaideep Sirkar -   who were also to be felicitated could not be present on the occasion because of  illness and pre-occupation.

In his welcome address, Pahariya Group convenor,  Arijit Sengupta, said  beside felicitating the veteran mountaineers for their unique achievements, the idea of this programme was to provide an opportunity to the present  generation of  adventure and   mountain lovers to meet their seniors who set the trend long back.

Sengupta also thanked the veterans for making themselves available to this programme.

Photo Captions. From left  Those who have been felicitated include : Rabin Banerjee,  Smt. Rama Paul ( Sengupta), Smt. Arati De, Smt. Swapna Chowdhury,  Vijay Dutta, Ujjwal Ganguly, Shyamal Chakrabarty, Samarendra Nath Dhar, Sishir Ghosh, Pranesh Chowdhury, Nirapada Mallick, Chanchal Mitra,, Lakshmi Datta ( Paul), Bhanu Banerjee, Smt. Ava Ghosh, Bidyut Sarkar and  Col  GUlshan Chadha  delivering " Gautam Kanjilal Memorial Lecture" on adventure Sports.