Another cop from the Andhra Pradesh Police has created history. This time, Gollapalli Ramamurthy Radhika (38) became the first-ever from the State to scale the highly demanding 5,980-m Golep Kangri peak in the Zanskar range of Western Himalayas near the Karakoram range.
What really inspired this brave lady? “Only last year I scaled the Mt. Kailash in Tibet as part of ‘parikrama’ on my own during my holy trip. That gave me a lot of confidence,” reminds the articulate Radhika, a DSP who is now posted at the Police Training College in Karimnagar.
How has been the whole experience this time around? “Being part of the Grey Hounds training unit and being familiar in many demanding outdoor adventure events on the AP Police Academy campus, where I earned some sort of distinction, I was not really scared for sure,” Radhika explains in an exclusive chat with The Hindu .
The woman cop reminds that unlike most trekking expeditions, the one she successfully completed is without the help of a pony or a porter. “It all started on September 16 and ended on 20th evening at 3.30 pm. Luckily, I went through the basic course in mountaineering at the Jawahar Institute of Mountaineering and Winter Sports, Pahalgam (J & K), and finished with ‘A’ grade.
This also made them recommend me for the advanced course because of my fitness levels and resilience,” Radhika points out.
“The whole course is really tough. After a stretch of normal mountains, it is all ice. It was a very risky proposition considering the extreme weather conditions. There were many in our batch who struggled to complete because of breathing problems. Luckily, I could acclimatise very quickly to the conditions and never had any problems,” the police officer explains.
Was there a moment when she thought that she should not have taken up this expedition? “Yes, when I almost slipped and fell into a valley covered with ice. I just managed to cling on to an edge and somehow climbed back. But once I overcame that, it actually gave me lots of confidence, and I never looked back,” she reveals.
The mother of two kids - with the elder one studying in 10th standard and her husband into business - Radhika clearly represents the new face of woman power. She is now dreaming of scaling new peaks of over 20,000 feet.
“In fact, I am very keen to finish another now itself. It was such a fascinating experience. A truly memorable experience, by all means,” she insists.
Again, it was possible thanks to the unstinted support from Mr. Rajiv Trivedi, Additional DGP (Sports). “We arranged for basic training in mountaineering the moment we realised her potential, and we are all glad that she completed in style” he says. “Radhika has done the entire police fraternity proud with her outstanding achievement.”
