There is a need to promote the Himalayan range in India as a mountaineering destination as it is being done by Nepal, said Brigadier (retired) Ashok Abbey, who served as the former president of the Indian Mountaineering Foundation (IMF) on Tuesday in Chennai.
Releasing the book, Mountains of our destiny, The Himalayas - an expedition to the Indian range, brought out by the special publications division of The Hindu, he said the book had come at the right time when the adventure tour operators in India were looking for maximum number of Indians and foreigners to carry out expeditions in the Indian Himalayas post COVID-19.
The book was released in the presence of N. Ravi, Chairman, Kasturi and Sons Ltd., and Malini Parthasarathy, Chairperson, THG Publishing Pvt. Ltd., at a function organised at the office of The Hindu.
‘India has diversity’
There was a misperception that the Himalayas is synonymous with Nepal and India has only part of it. While some of the highest mountains, including the Mount Everest, is there in Nepal, India on the other hand had diversity from Arunachal Pradesh till Ladakh.
“Mount Everest is not the be-all and end-all of mountaineering…There are mountains that are more challenging and difficult,” Brig. Abbey said.
Nepal promoted the Himalayas zealously as revenue from mountaineering contributed significantly to its gross domestic product. Not just foreigners, even Indians, spent huge sums of money for mountaineering in Nepal. Brig. Abbey said India could also benefit greatly if there was adequate impetus to promote mountaineering in the Indian Himalayan region.
The former Army officer said the coffee table book, with photographs by J. Ramanan and commentary by Vrinda Ramanan, both trained mountaineers, could contribute greatly towards this as the book comprehensively covered the Indian Himalayan range unlike most other books on the topic. He said a copy of the book should be present in the offices of the Ministry of Tourism, the IMF, all the mountaineering clubs and Indian diplomatic missions abroad to showcase the mountaineering potential in India.
