BACHENDRI PAL

24 May 1954, Uttarkashi

Bachendri Pal is an Indian mountaineer, who in 1984 became the first Indian woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest and she popularly known as the ‘Queen of Hills’.  Bachendri Pal is the 5th female mountaineer in the world to touch the height of Everest.

Padma Bhushan Bachendri Pal was born to a Bhotiya family on 24 May 1954 in Nakuri village, in the Uttarkashi district in the Indian state of Uttarakhand and his father name was Shri Kishan Singh Pal and mother name Smt Hansa Devi.

“Bachendri Pal was the first Indian woman to climb Mount Everest, the world’s highest peak and first Indian woman to conquer Mount Everest in the Guinness Book of World Records in 1990.”

EARLY LIFE

A girl named Bachendri was born to Hansa Devi and Shri Kishan Singh Pal on May 24, 1954, in the Himalayas. Bachendri became the first girl from her village to graduate after earning her M.A. and B.Ed. From the D.A.V. Post Graduate College in Dehradun. Her family wanted her to become a schoolteacher, but Bachendri had other, more adventurous ideas; thus she was frequently accused of. Bachendri Pal is working for Tata Steel, a steel company in India, where she trains the selected people on exciting missions.

Bachendri’s first incursion into mountaineering came at the age of 12, when she climbed 400 meters with her schoolmates. She was transferred to a college in 1982 to pursue additional education, and while there, she became the first woman to climb Mount Rudragaria (19,091 feet) and Mount Gangotri (23,419 feet). She was employed by the National Adventure Foundation, which had established a women’s mountaineering school, at that time as a teacher.

MOUNTEERING CAREER

The turning point in Pal’s life occurred when, in spite of her deteriorating health at the time, she was chosen to climb Mount Everest in 1984 as part of India’s first mixed-gender team, which included six female and eleven male mountaineers.

In May, the team started their ascent. An avalanche buried Bachendri’s camp. The child, with her bold resolve to move on, did not have to return after nearly half the team suffered major injuries. As fate continued to favor the brave, Bachendri became the first Indian woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.

Bachendri led an all-female “Indo-Nepalese Women’s Mount Everest Expedition” team to the summit in 1993, setting a new standard for Indian climbing. The next year, she took part in “The Great Indian Women’s Rafting Voyage,” the first-ever voyage of women rafters down the Ganges, covering 2155 kilometers in 39 days from Haridwar to Calcutta.

Together with seven other female mountaineers, she made a successful attempt at the “First Indian Women Trans-Himalayan Expedition” in 1997, trekking from Arunachal Pradesh to the Siachen Glacier, reaching the northernmost point of the country at a height of 20,100 ft (6,126.5 m), and overcoming 40 high Mountain passes. In the glorious history of the country, this was the first successful attempt by any nation.

ACHIEVEMENTS & AWARDS

ACHIEVEMENTS

Ms. Bachendri Pal is the Director of the Tata Steel Adventure Foundation (TSAF), a prestigious institute in India that promotes adventure programmes and leadership development courses among young people and women as well as corporates, institutions, and other organizations. She is also the Chief of Adventure Programs at Tata Steel Jamshedpur.

She has a reputation for being a trailblazer in the field of leadership development during the past three decades through her use of adventure expeditions. People are the primary force behind any organization, community, or country, and she has produced numerous leaders who have benefited both them and the people whose lives they have affected.

AWARDS

• Won the Indian Mountaineering Foundation’s 1984 Gold Medal for Excellence in Mountaineering.
• She received the fourth-highest civilian honour, the Padma Shri, from the Indian government in the same year.
• Received a gold medal in 1985 from the government of UttarPradesh’s department of education.
• Government of India honored with the Arjuna Award; in 1986, also received the Calcutta Ladies Study Group Award.
• She entered herself as the first Indian woman to conquer Mount Everest in the Guinness Book of World Records in 1990.
• Awarded the National Adventure Award by the Indian government in 1994.
• Awarded the Yash Bharti Award in 1995 by the state of Uttar Pradesh.
• Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University awarded her a PhD in 1997.
• Awarded the Virangana Lakshmibai Rashtriya Samman 2013–14 by the Madhya Pradesh government’s ministry of culture.
• Received the Padma Bhushan, the third-highest civilian honour given by the Indian government, in 2019.