The Pandemic and the Mind 

Mental Health is a serious issue over the last few months. Children, young adults to Senior Citizens and Persons with Disability have been facing tremendous anxiety and other forms of mental stress. The positive is that a large number of people are now open to talk about their issue and seek help. We need more conversations around this subject for people to feel safe and talk.

A recent study by a preventive healthcare company GOQii indicates that 43% of Indians are depressed and are learning to cope with it. Another 26% Indians are facing mild depression, 17% face a more strenuous kind. It is concerning to note that 6% Indians are severely depressed, the study indicated.

The study conducted across 10000+ Indians to understand how COVID has changed lifestyle and how Indians are adapting to the new normal. This is a comparative study and highlights the glaring difference in lifestyle habits pre-corona and post lockdown. As per the study, a large section of the population has little interest in doing things in the current scenario. There is a cause of concern with more than 59% of the population having little pleasure in doing things these days, out of which 38% have this feeling on a few days and 9% feel so more than half of the days. 12% of the population has little interest almost every day in these times.

https://en.gaonconnection.com/the-pandemic-and-the-mind-me…/

 

Probe into the false Everest Summit starts in India and Nepal

While Indian Govt has put on hold Narender Singh's Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award to investigate the allegations against him, the Nepal DoT has also swung in action. He and his family will go all out to prove everyone wrong but, the investigation has started and my only request to all is please stand united and do not be scared to speak the truth till this ends. The problem is not about just the fake summit, the investigation has to look into his overall credibility, what are these world records that he is claiming he has got or participated. I created one of those certificates as well from the genuine 'Guinness Book of World Record Websites'. His twitter account is plastered with his photos with politicians congratulating him.. What surprises me is that for all the achievements that he has got, no mainstream media ahs has ever written one story on his achievements. Also, what saddens me is that year after year, its only Indians creating controversies especially with regard to summiting the highest Mountains. Why are we resorting to dubious methods to claim summits? is it all about cash rewards and accolades that follow, Govt Jobs?

So this is a fight for the truth!

https://www.mid-day.com/articles/nepal-s-tourism-department-starts-narender-singh-summit-inquiry/22961230

                                                                Award withheld or Denied??

 It is official that Narender Singh's name is not on the final list of awardees attending the virtual award ceremony on the 29th of August. The Haryana based mountaineer with a questionable mountaineering career accused of faking his Mt Everest Summit was one of the recipients of the prestigious Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award.

An official statement released by the Sports Ministry this evening states that there will be 14 sportspersons who will be absent from the virtual presentation of the annual National Sports Awards by the President of India Ram Nath Kovind this morning. The Ministry goes on to say that these sportspersons are unable to make it to the award due to health reasons and due to other sporting commitments, while one recipient of the Dronacharya Award has passed away.

The final list of names released by the Ministry does not have the name of Narender Singh. On Thursday, August 27, 2020, I had reported for The Mid-Day newspaper that Narender Singh had faked his Everest Summit in 2016 and raised questions on the selection criteria of these awards.
(https://www.mid-day.com/…/man-who-faked-summiting…/22956228…).

As a consequence of the report and the outrage ion social media by the mountaineering community, a probe was initiated by the Ministry and the concerned officers were asked to take charge to investigate the matter on an emergency basis on Friday August 28, 2020
(https://www.mid-day.com/…/probe-ordered-in-fake-e…/22957289…) .

However, there are no clear reasons cited as to why Singh’s name is not on the final awards list. Speculations are rife that he is not getting the award due to pending investigations.

The mountaineering community as a whole hope that the inquiry is a comprehensive one and not just limited to his fake Everest claims. The investigation needs to look into his credentials as a mountaineer and all his other claims of successful summits and world records. 

The big question is what qualifies him for this national award? Does he truly meet the outstanding ethical and technical standards required by an adventurer for receiving a National award for excellence in his field? If these questions are clearly answered it would truly be a beginning because that is the change we hope to bring.

It is yet on confirmed whether his award is withheld or denied.

 

Probe initiated to Fake Summit and credentials of the climber  who is likely to be given the prestigious Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award

Glad! that a probe has been initiated and the highest authorities are looking into the matter.  It's not about just about faking Everest. it is to what extent a person can stoop to get favours and accolades and he has managed this so well for so many years. Hoping truth wins! and if it does not and he gets the award, I am going to ensure that his Everest Certificate is officially cancelled by the DoT of Nepal. Even if it means it takes a couple of more months! That certificate thought got on faking summit is an authentic certificate as any another genuine Everest has.

Follow up a story in Mid-day

https://www.mid-day.com/articles/probe-ordered-in-fake-everest-summit-row/22957289

So long as individuals are not taught to climb for the love it and constantly told that if you climb Everest you will get this and you will get that these kind of wrongdoings are likely to continue. Rewarding is good but do not reward blindly based on recommendations. A proper check has to be put in place on the capabilities and the efforts put. What experience does the person have?

Even as I write this blog, my sources tell me that the man with the questionable Mountaineering career Narender Singh was part of the Award Ceremony rehearsals yesterday. Imagine, what credibility will this have in the future. 

If this is how National prestigious awards are given it says a lot about the standards we have.    I am still hopeful that truth will win 

.

Alleged Fraudster to get Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award for Land Adventure

 

 Fraudster to get Tenzing Norgay National Award for land Adventure

Mt Everest Expedition team Leader Naba Kumar Phukon of Assam says Tenzing Norgay Award recipient in 2020- Narender Singh never summited Mt Everest on May 20^,  2016 .

The award in question? 

Ever since the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Awards were announced last week, mountaineers all over the country are up in arms about one of the recipients in the Land Adventure category. The man in question is Narender Singh of Haryana who faked his Everest Summit in 2016 by providing photoshopped images. He claimed he climbed Everest on May 20th, 2016. However, his team leader Naba Kumar Phukon of Assam has gone on record to say that Narendra Singh did not summit Mt Everest in 2016. Speaking from Assam, Naba recounts the entire conversation between him and Narender Singh, “On 19^th evening, Narender and I were at South Col (Camp 4). Narender complained to me that he did not have sufficient oxygen, I advised him to descend as without oxygen one cannot summit Everest. I then left for my summit push and summited Everest on May 20th, 7:45 am. On my return I met climbers from Bengal police at South Col and asked them about Narender. They mentioned that they met him mid-way between Camp 2 and 3. I met him again on 21^st May at Camp 2, he had developed frostbite. When I left for basecamp he was still at camp 2. I reached Kathmandu on May 23^rd, received my certificate and came home.”

When asked about Narender and his fake summit certificate he  says, “I got to know two days back when I read he is getting the Tenzing Norgay Award. I wondered on what basis and I saw a report saying he has summited Everest which is a total lie. I’m 100% sure that he did not summit, it was just not possible, he did not have oxygen and he had developed frostbite''.

Naba and Narender Singh was on the expedition with Nepali agency Seven Summits.

Another Everester, Ramesh Roy, who summited the same year on May 21st, speaking to me from Kolkata, also said Narender Singh did not summit Everest. “I and 3 other mountaineers were resting in our tent at Summit Camp. Narender Singh was crying in the next tent and when we asked what happened he told us that he could not summit as he did not have enough Oxygen and hence returning back. I met him again around 26th May, 2016 in Kathmandu and he showed me his certificate and said see I have my summit certificate. I was shocked. It will be a disaster if he is given the Tenzing Norgay National Award for Adventure.”    

Lakhpa Sherpa from Nepal, who was part of the rescue team on Everest in May 2016 season says, " in 2016, Narender Yadav was not able to summit Mt Everest. I was in the rescue team that season and we rescued him from Everest Balcony (8400 mts). He was not able to go ahead of the balcony. I was shocked to see the Summit certificate in his hands. It's the mistake of Nepal's operating company> So he should not be given such a prestigious award. proper judgement should be done during the distribution of such a paragon award otherwise it will be disrespectful to many good Indian climbers.    

In 2016, I had exposed the Fake Summit of Mt Everest by the husband-wife duo Dilip and Tarkeshwari Rathore, constables from Maharashtra Police (https://www.mid-day.com/articles/himalayan-con-probe-ordered-into-pune-couples-everest-record/17381162) through this very newspaper. After relentless reporting for 14 months Nepal Govt and Department of Tourism of Nepal (in-charge of Mt Everest expeditions and giving certificates) cancelled their Summit certificates. They were eventually expelled from the Police service.

While working on the police constable investigation, I had come across Narender Singh’s case and I tried to expose his fake summit as well. I could not expose him in 2016 only because of lack of photo evidence and no first-hand eye witness accounts. Had I exposed him then, today the mountaineering community in India would not be disappointed.

(pics Attached). The picture he posted on Social Media and the newspaper pictures are different and clearly show they were morphed. One summit picture shows his face without the oxygen mask and in the other picture he is seen sitting with his oxygen mask, however, the mask has no oxygen pipe which clearly indicates that it is a bad photoshop job. He is seen sitting beside another climber in the pictures and the background is different in both. I tried to speak to him during my investigation in 2016 but he refused to talk to me. 

Nepal Press in 2016, did talk of his fake Everest summit based on his morphed summit photos but did not take it to a conclusion by investigating or speaking to him or the Nepalese agency Seven Summit and have his certificate cancelled.

Tenzing Norgay Adventure Award was instituted in 1993 to celebrate and recognize excellence in the field of adventure sports Land, Air, Sea and Lifetime achievement. Past recipients of this award have been stalwarts like Bachinderi Pal, Chandraprabha Aitwal, Wangchuk Sherpa, Premlata Agarwal, Brigadier Ashok Abbey, Palden Giachho who in the 27 year history of the award have raised its prestige and been an inspiration and standard of achievement in the sport.

It is shocking to note on what basis Narender Singh is being given this award. He has no credible mountaineering achievements. Is merely filling an application form and giving basic details about climbs done in the last three years (2017, 2018 and 2019) enough? Is showing certificates and some local newspaper articles about climbing Mt Kilimanjaro and Mt Elbarus enough to win the Tenzing Norgay Adventure Award?

Tensing Norgay National Adventure Award – the highest award for a mountaineer in India was instituted in 1993 to celebrate and recognize excellence in the field of adventure sports Land, Air, Sea and Lifetime achievement in these areas of sports. Past recipients of this award have been stalwarts like  Bachinderi Pal, Chandraprabha Aitwal, Wangchuk Sherpa, Premlata Agarwal, Brigadier Ashok Abbey, Palden Giachho who in the 27-year history of the award has raised its prestige and been an inspiration and standard of achievement in the sport.

Even the younger recipients of Award Nugshi and Tashi Mallik, Arunima Sinha, Anshu Jamsenpa and all the others have furthered the course of the sport in their own way and pushed their peers to strive for further and higher excellence.

I wonder what the word ‘Excellence’ means now? What is the criteria of giving such a highest award? Is it mere recommendations and filling a mere application form which also has only the candidate to fill in some basic details and talk about what climbs have you done in the last three years ( 2017, 2018 and 2019) . Showing that you have certificates and some articles about yourself in local newspapers about having climbed Mt Everest, Kilimanjaro-highest peak in Africa and Elbarus -highest in Russia is enough to win a Tenzing Norgay Award?

Debabrata Mukherjee, an Internationally Certified Mountain Guide and the oldest Indian to Summit Mt Everest at the age of 52 in 2014 from the North says, “Faking Everest seems to be a trend in India. Such a high honour cannot be given on climbing just Kilimanjaro and Elbarus. It has to be given based merit and on overall climbing skill, new route and technical difficulty and partly on development of mountaineering in India. Before selecting, the credentials should be checked by IMF as this is the highest mountaineering award in the country.

Padmashree Premlata Agarawal, the first Indian woman to scale the seven highest continental peaks of the world and a recipient of the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award in 2017 says, “An enquiry committee has to be put in place and they should investigate this person. In my opinion IMF should look into the matter as it concerns Indian mountaineering”.

There are so many more accomplished climbers in India who have an exemplary climbing record to their credit, including multiple 8000ers in the last 3 years. The very fact that the selection criteria for such a high honour is so flimsy has left many deserving climbers to steer clear of these awards. A humble community that has always stayed away from the limelight has finally raised its voice against the award going to a man with questionable mountaineering credentials.

Naba Kumar Phukon from Assam has also written to tensing Norgay’s son, Jamling Norgay, requesting him to look into the matter.

Several questions arise with regard to the selection criterion, verification process and the range of individual achievement required to receive the highest adventure sports honour in the country. These questions may or may not get answered, however, the collective outrage of the mountaineering community proves that no voice resonating with truth can be silenced.

 https://www.mid-day.com/articles/man-who-faked-summiting-mount-everest-to-be-awarded/22956228?ref=component_article_infinitescroll_1

 

 

    

 

Sometimes it feels good to know that there are good things happening around us . Vodafone Grow -Trees.Com initiative a move in the positive direction to protect Forests.

Post by The Other Story.

Afforestation is need of the Hour

Post by The Other Story.

Post by The Other Story.

Uttarkashi Diary!! Life Goes on………

……..Nothing has changed much

Last monsoon I was in Uttarkashi for relief operations and this monsoon I once again was there to check on the social work through Summiting4Hope that we have undertaken to help as many as we can here. And the effort is still on.

I have been travelling to Uttarakashi once in 3 months since last June. What amazes me is that nothing seems to have changed since then. 

The mountains of Garhwal Himalayas

Every time I am here and I travel to some of the villages in the interiors or meet the villagers in town, it makes me think that we live in 2 India- the one that you and me live in -the so called Urban and developed India that is seeing growth and second I dis is the India which even after 65 years is still fighting for basic amenities such as roads, water, power, medical facilities and employment opportunities.

The path or road to Bankoli . Its a neat 6-7 km walk upwards to the village

The villagers are very troubled but yet they have a smile on their face and continue with their daily routine. There are no roads yet. One downpour and the roads get washed away. On an average a villager has to trek 7-8 Km up and down daily to the road head for anything that they may require. 

For some villages such as Pilang and Jadao, the villagers have to trek 22 km to get to the road head. The villagers aren't complaining. It's a reality they have reconciled to and carry on with their day to day work as normally as it could get.

I was told that this time around too the government has been dropping ration via helicopters. The state government seems to be spending more on heli rides to the villages due to lack of roads and bridges.

It is understood that in one village in the district of Uttarkashi, the state Government dropped ration worth Rs 60,000 for an entire village via a helicopter and spend Rs 9 lakh on the heli ride. It would have been cheaper to have built the bridges and roads to connect the villages.

In another incident, a village lost one of its youngsters to a medical emergency as they were unable to get him to the district hospital in main Uttarkashi town nor be taken to the nearest primary health centre on time for treatment. Getting medical treatment is a mammoth task for the villagers. There are Government appointed Ashas in every village but Asha's cannot administer drugs. For any serious ailment, the villagers have to trek down few kms to get to the road head and thereafter get to the district hospital for a doctor's treatment. Every village that we visited we have had to administer some basic drugs like Paracetamol, pain killers or dress wounds.

Mamta in her Underconstruction house 

We traveled first to Bankoli village where Summiting4Hope, the social initiative that I started is working on its second project. We went to check on the house that we are building for the brave heart Mamta Rawat. Am I glad to say that the work has progressed well and the roof is laid. We have had to stop the work for a while due to heavy rains due to which transporting of cement and other materials has become a problem. But, the work will resume soon. Our estimation is that we should be able to complete the construction within one month of the work resuming.

Soon Mamta will move into her new home with her family and have a solid permanent shelter for herself and her family.  What is interesting to note is that Mamta has become an inspiration for many young women in her village and the nearby villages. They all want to do something in life which I think is a positive sign. When we spoke to them we got to know that they all want to become independent and earn a living for themselves. 

Summmiting4Hope will be sponsoring some of these women for their basic mountaineering courses and also train them with some basic communication skills and then get them freelance jobs in the adventure field where they can utilise their skills and earn a living and supplement their family income. We also spoke to their parents who are equally supportive and that's a positive sign I would say for these women.

Summiting4Hope along with Red Cross providing First Aid in Bankoli 

After we checked on the progress of the house, we then accompanied Jayprakash Panwar, the Uttarkashi district head of Red Cross who was surveying the extent of fresh damage in the village due to the current rains. Thankfully, we figured the damaged this year is not as much as it was last year. But, yet some houses have seen cracks.

The treacherous road 

One big heavy shower and the roads are lost, landslides haven't stopped here but, life goes on as they say.

Mamta Rawat: The unsung hero of Bankoli, Uttarkashi

 

Why is it that when we think of ‘Women of Substance’ we only think of the elite women.  Here is the story of a young brave heart from a small village called Bankoli in Uttarkashi district of uttarakhand. It’s the story 

of Mamta Rawat who in my eyes is truly a woman of substance.

This is her story …Mamta is 24 years old. Having dropped out of school to take care of her mother and her home, Mamta after great struggle managed to do her Basic Mountaineering Course from the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering, Uttarkashi. But, it took her two years after her Basic Course to save up another Rs5000 to do her Advance Course. She did it with the hope that she could get employment in the adventure field. Having performed very well in the Advance course she got a sponsor to sponsor her next course the Method of Instruction course. She then went on to do her Search and Rescue Course. All these courses finally paid off and today she is a professional mountaineer and a qualified instructor. She works as guest instructor with NIM and as a freelancer with INME, a Delhi based adventure sport orgnaisation that conducts training and adventure trips for children.

Mamta, the only earning member of her family is a determined young Gharwali girl who always puts others first and then thinks about herself. Even as her house was getting washed away she preferred to rush out to the help of the pilgrims and other tourists rather than save her house as she was confident that nothing would happen to her family. She was out on rescue missions since the 17th of June with the NIM team and then for the next one month with INME on relief operations.

There are tales of this girl that will mesmerize people. While, on the rescue mission she carried a middle-aged pilgrim woman on her back as the lady was unconscious. She carried her on her back - like a mountaineer carries a rucksack – and ran down the rocky terrain for over 3km to help her get evacuated by a helicopter for further medical treatment. Even when asked what help she required with regard to her house she mentioned that it was nothing but that her village that required rope/cable bridges to cross over the rivers, as all the old bridges were washed away by river. Today she lives with her family of 6 members under a tinned roof.

It is for this brave heart that Summiting4Hope has decided to raise funds and help build her a permanent home where she and her family can live peacefully without any fear. Hers is the only house in her village that has been washed away. Mamta is an outgoing young girl who is ever ready to help anyone in need and always put the needs of others far above her own. Having done so much of her own people and for other that she did not even know, we feel this is the least that we can do for her.