Bachendri Pal to lead ‘Mission Gange’, a Tata Steel Adventure Foundation initiative in Partnership with National Mission for Clean Ganga

Chandigarh, October 4, 2018: India’s first woman to scale Mount Everest and Chief, Tata Steel Adventure Foundation (TASF) Ms.Bachendri Pal, recipient of Padma Shri and Arjuna Award will lead a 40-member squad on a 1500-km, 27-day ‘Mission Gange’ rafting expedition in partnership with National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) along the river Ganga from 5 – 30 October, 2018. The ambitious mission is aimed to create awareness at grassroots level by cleaning the river and riverfronts and educating people about waste management, clean environment and climate change. The team will start its expedition on October 5 from Haridwar traversing through Bijnor – Farukkhabad – Kanpur – Allahabad – Varanasi - Buxar and end with a drive in Patna. The expedition team will organize cleaning and awareness drives with the help of local communities, visit schools and other institutions to create awareness around waste management, climate change and Government of India’s ‘Mission Clean Ganga’ (Namami Gange). NMCG will partner with TSAF for this important initiative, providing providing support for waste disposal, accommodation, volunteers, coordination with local authorities, NGOs and schools at various locations. TSAF Chief and Mission Gange Expedition leader Ms. Bachendri Pal said, “Our expedition is inspired by Government of India’s Namami Gange mission, which has been a very important step towards cleaning the Ganges that has been a life-supporting river for millions in our country. The aim of our expedition is to reach out to as many people as possible, heighten the awareness around keeping this great river clean and make a movement out of the Mission that had started four years ago.” The upcoming expedition to clean the Ganges and creating awareness around cleanliness in public and private spaces is not new to Ms Pal, one of India’s brightest national treasures. “We are also grateful to Tata Motors for providing us a support vehicle for the entire duration of the expedition. This would be of tremendous help at all the locations where the team will set up base,” Ms Pal said “In 1993, the Indo-Nepalese Women’s Everest Expedition that I led voluntarily brought down 500 kgs of non-biodegradable waste from the Everest, which was then properly disposed of in Kathmandu, Nepal. Since then, this has been made mandatory for all expeditions to the Everest. Similarly, in 1994 when I led the Indian Women’s first Ganga Voyage, rafting nearly 2100 kms from Haridwar to Kolkata, apart from the hardcore ‘adventure element,’ the women brought ashore several dead bodies and buried them showing great resilience,” Ms Pal further added. TSAF has brought together a diverse and industrious team of 40 individuals (20 women and 20 men) comprising 8 mountaineers (Bachendri Pal, Premlata Agarwal, Hemant Gupta, R S Pal, Chetna Sahoo, Binita Soren, Poonam Rana, Swarnlata Dalai) who have summited Mt. Everest, 26 Tata Steel employees, 5 engineers from Indian Institute of Technology, one radio jockey and management graduates. In the run-up to the main expedition the team has already completed two cleaning drives at Jamshedpur, collecting more than 700 kg of Solid Waste. Team members also participated in cleanliness drive with NMCG at Kalindi Guj ghat at Delhi. The cleaning and awareness drives will be carried out at the river ghats along the way, the details of which are as follows: Haridwar – Oct 5-7 - Har Ki Pauri Pandweep Ghat Alaknanda Ghat Kanpur – Oct 15-17 - Bithoor Ghat Sarsaiya Ghat Massacre Ghat Allahabad - Oct19 -21 - Sangam Ghat Parade Ground Dashaswamedh Ghat Varanasi - Oct 23 – 25-Raj Ghat Dashaswamedh Ghat Manikarnika Ghat Assi Ghat Patna – Oct 29-30 - Kali Ghat & Gai Ghat Bhairav Ghat Mission Gange Activities · Cleaning Drives · Awareness in School · Involving Local NGOs · Ganga Chaupal · Knowledge sharing through social media · Municipalities have agreed to help us with the required resources and disposal of the collected waste. Mission Gange Team Members: S.No. Name Gender 1 Bachendri Pal Female 2 Premlata Agrawal Female (1st Indian woman to climb 7 summits, recipient of Padma Shri and Arjuna Award) 3 Hemant Gupta Male (Everester and IIT Bomnbay Graduate) 4 R S Pal Male (Everester) 5 Chetna Sahoo Female (Everester) 6 Binita Soren Female (Everester) 7 Poonam Rana Female (Everester) 8 Swarnlata Dalai Female (Everester) 9 Nidhi Tiwari Female 10 Heena Kumari Female 11 Chitrali Sarkar Female 12 Nisha Female 13 Sneha Biswas Female 14 Amla Rawat Female 15 Anita Vaidya Female 16 Neekita Patel Female 17 Gangotri Indumati Female 18 Gudia Rani Female 19 khusboo Kumari Female 20 Stuti Bala Female 21 Sushila Mahato Female 22 Sidhi Kumari Female 23 Sushma Bissa Female 24 Harish Kumar Sharma Male 25 Mohan Rawat Male 26 Pranav Mamgain Male 27 Rahul Bahuguna Male 28 Som Mardi Male 29 Varun Sharma Male 30 Amratendu Baral Male 31 Rajesh Mallik Male 32 Deepak Kumar Sah Male 33 Arpit Sharma Male 34 Vinay Chelwani Male 35 Twesh Upadhyay Male 36 Lingaraj Nahak Male 37 Gaurav Anand Male 38 Ankit Agrahari Male 39 Rishi Kumar Male 40 Arun Pratap Singh Male 41 Nirmal Pandey Male