Braving bad weather and taking the challenge head-on, Tamil-speaking Karnataka cadre officer of the Indian Forest Service, S. Prabhakaran, and Punjabi-speaking Maharashtra cadre Indian Police Service officer Suhail Sharma, created history on Friday by becoming the first IFS and IPS officers to conquer Mount Everest.
An IPS officer of the Gujarat cadre, Atul Karwal has the distinction of being the first civil servant to scale Mount Everest in 2008. Interestingly, Mr. Prabhakaran and Mr. Sharma were a part of the 5-member All Indian Civil Servants Expedition - 2015, an effort that had to be abandoned mid-way because of the quake that rocked Nepal and the Himalayan region. They were rescued and brought to the plains. Undeterred by the ordeal of 2015, the young civil servants resumed their training in mountaineering this year to realise their dream of scaling the Everest. Seasoned mountaineer from this district, Shekarababu Bachinapally, who runs the Bhongir Rock Climbing School, lent logistic support to them and acted as their guide through out their arduous journey, till the summit camp.
The duo climbed several prominent peaks across the world over the past few years after realising their dream of cracking the civil services. However, their main aim was to scale the Mount Everest. While Mr. Prabhakaran cleared the Civil Services Examination in 2011, Mr. Sharma became an IPS officer in 2012, securing 172{+n}{+d}rank. He is currently serving as Assistant Superintendent of Police in Mekhar district of Maharashtra.
Adilabad: Additional Superintendent of Police G.R. Radhika climbed Mount Everest on Friday, reaching the summit at 9.40 a.m. This was announced by Superintendent of Police Tarun Joshi after he received a call from the family members of the mountaineer. Ms. Radhika started from Adilabad on April 6 and reached the base camp on May 12 via Nepal and Tibet. There are nine other climbers in the team.
(WITH INPUTS FROM T. KARNAKAR REDDY & S. HARPAL SINGH)
