'She was India's Daughter and India's Pride'

Savita Kanswal, 26, was posthumously awarded the highest adventure award at Rashtrapati Bhavan this month. She died heroically, as she had lived, doing what no woman had done before her.

The applause filled the grand room in the Rashtrapati Bhawan, but Savita Kanswal's mother and sisters could not stop their tears.

Her father Radhe Shyam Kanswal stoically walked up to receive the Tenzing Norgay Adventure Award bestowed posthumously on his youngest daughter who was just 26 when she died in India's worst mountaineering mishap in 2022.

Savita had displayed exceptional courage till her last breath as one of the instructors in a group comprising 37 trainee mountaineers and seven instructors. The 41-member team was caught in an avalanche at Draupadi ka Danda in Uttarkashi on October 4, 2022.

Twenty-seven members died after being trapped inside a deep crevasse, buried under several feet of snow.

Savita is the first Indian woman to climb two of the world's highest peaks -- Mount Everest and Mount Makalu -- within 16 days. She would have climbed Mount Elbrus in Russia a few weeks later in 2022 had the mishap not claimed her life.

"If it was an avalanche, she may have come out of it and rescued others, but the situation was made worse because they fell into a deep crevasse and were buried under several feet of snow. It was impossible to come out," says sister Manorama who attended the awards ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan and is a yoga instructor at the Nehru Mountaineering Institute where Savita was a guest instructor.

The Nehru Mountaineering Institute is one of the country's premier mountaineering institutes.

"All sports people and others at the ceremony came up to my parents and said the whole nation is proud of Savita. They said she is India's daughter who had achieved so much at such a young and made the nation proud," Manorama recalls in a telephone conversation from Dehradun, en route to their village of Lonthru, Uttarkashi.

The family was felicitated by Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Dhami on their return from Delhi after the ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Savita Kanswal's ultimate goal was scaling the Seven Summits -- the highest peaks on the seven continents.

She had first read about Mount Everest, the world's highest mountain, in her village school when she was in Class 8.

"Mesmerised by what she read about the Mother of all Mountains, she decided that she would climb it one day -- and climb it she did," remembers Manorama.

As she grew older, Savita had to complete six mountaineering courses. Hailing from a poor family, she realised that mountaineering was expensive and the family had no money to spare for her pursuits.

The cost for the basic mountaineering course was Rs 5,000. She borrowed the money from friends and then took on some jobs to finish the remaining courses.

"Mountaineering is an outdoor adventure sport where you are at the mercy of nature for extended durations. My mother used to worry about where she would sleep and what she would eat. Moreover, people in our remote village also frowned upon her undertaking mountaineering, but she fought them all, completed all the courses, found sponsors and went on to climb world famous mountains," says Manorama with pride.

Giving a sense of the high costs incurred for mountaineering like specialised equipment, gear and food, she says, "The fee charged by the Nepal government to climb Everest is Rs 30 lakhs itself, and then there are other personal costs to bear. Scaling Mount Everest and Mount Makalu cost her above Rs 40 lakhs."

Savita raised the money by contacting several companies and sent out many mails seeking sponsors. She was grateful for every rupee she raised in pursuit of her goal.

Recognition started coming her way after she climbed Mount Lhotse, the fourth highest peak on earth, in 2021. People began knowing her, local politicians started welcoming her when she returned from successful expeditions and support became more forthcoming.

"She was a physically, technically and mentally sound mountaineer. Such was her knowledge, strength, fitness and technical grasp about the mountains that the Sherpa accompanying her to Mount Makalu told her that she had the capacity to climb that peak without oxygen cylinders," says Manorama.

"All mountaineers knew her prowess. We were confident that nothing could happen to her, but fate had some other plan."

Savita had set her mind upon conquering the remaining six summits and was to leave for Russia on October 10, 2022 to climb Mount Elbrus.

"She was the best and most accomplished mountaineer I have met in Garhwal. She was the pride of Garhwal and India," says Mamta Rawat, her instructor and a courageous mountain guide who rescued hundreds of people in the Kedarnath flash floods in 2013.

Mamta was invited on a show with Amitabh Bachchan in recognition of her bravery during disaster relief.

"We had climbed that area where the tragedy occurred so many times in the past. It was like our practice area, but on that day a big piece of a snow boulder broke causing the avalanche."

The summit was at a distance of 50 to 100 metres when the tragedy struck at 8.45 am. Buried beneath the snow, Savita must have tried everything that mountaineers employ in such situations like making space around the face to facilitate breathing.

However, even the most experienced of mountaineers cannot survive when buried deep inside a 60 feet crevasse after being hit by an avalanche.

"Maybe God only had so much time for her," says Manorama.

Mamta Rawat invited Savita for a women's day function in her village two years ago. When she received the sad news of her passing, she was at the hospital when the body was brought in for a post mortem.

She also composed and sang a song in a tribute to Savita, her fellow mountaineer who she loved and admired.

"She was an exceptional role model, many girls joined mountaineering because of her," says Mamta.

A year after her passing when she visited Savita's home, her mother gave her tea in the cup that Savita used in the mountains. She also gave her Rs 100, saying 'keep it in my daughter's memory; my Savita may have died hungry', recalls an emotional Mamta Rawat.

"Her end came in the mountains that she loved. She breathed her last in the auspicious Draupadi ka Danda which the Pandavas crossed on their way to heaven. It is a sacred place," says Mamta.

The Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award bestowed on Savita Kanswal constitutes of a bronze statute, certificate and award money of Rs 15 lakhs.

It is considered to be equivalent to the Arjuna Award and is presented at the same ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

"We have a room full of awards, medals, certificates won by Savita in our home," says Manorama. "We will position this award in the highest place so that Savita can see it clearly from above."

Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com