Mumbai (PTI): Priyanka Mohite from Satara in western Maharashtra has become the first Indian woman to scale five peaks above 8,000 metre after she climbed Mount Kanchenjunga on Thursday.

Priyanka (30), the recipient of Tenzing Norgay Adventure Award 2020, successfully completed her expedition to Mount Kanchenjunga (8,586 m), the third highest mountain on the planet, at 4.52 pm, her brother Akash Mohite told PTI.

In April 2021, she had scaled Mt Annapurna (8,091 m), the 10th highest mountain peak in the world and had become the first Indian woman climber to achieve the feat.

Priyanka has also climbed the world's highest peak Mount Everest (8,849 m) in 2013, Mount Lhotse (8,516 m) in 2018, Mount Makalu (8,485 m) and Mount Kilimanjaro (5,895 m) in 2016.

Passionate about mountaineering since childhood, Priyanka started to scale mountains in the Sahyadri range of Maharashtra as a teenager and in 2012 scaled Bandarpunch, a mountain massif of the Garhwal division of the Himalayas, in Uttarakhand.

In 2015 Priyanka scaled Mt. Menthosa which at 6443 metres is the second-highest peak in the Lahaul and Spiti district of Himachal Pradesh.

The Bengaluru-based climber is also the recipient of the Maharashtra Government's Shiv Chhatrapati State award for adventure sports for 2017-2018.




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New Delhi (PTI): Hailing the Karnataka government's decision to declare its lands in the Yelahanka taluk of Bengaluru Urban district as the Greater Hesaraghatta Grassland Conservation Reserve, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Wednesday said the Siddaramaiah-led dispensation was demonstrating how economic growth, social development and ecological sustainability could go hand-in-hand.

The Karnataka government on Monday notified 5,678 acres and 32 guntas of land in the Yelahanka taluk as the Greater Hesaraghatta Grassland Conservation Reserve.

The notification came after the state Cabinet last month decided to declare the grassland as a conservation reserve.

Reacting to the development, former Union environment minister Ramesh said the Karnataka government had been attracting very many new investments since May 2023.

It has also been implementing historic income support, food security and other guarantees, he added.

"Now, it has taken a bold decision to finally declare about 5,700 acres of government lands in the Yelahanka taluk of Bengaluru Urban district as the Greater Hesaraghatta Grassland Conservation Reserve under the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972," Ramesh said in a post on X.

This grassland reserve is critical and, as a large catchment area, will greatly help in groundwater recharge for farmers in surrounding villages, Ramesh said.

It will augment the water supply to Bengaluru city, he further said.

"It will provide a natural carbon sink that mitigates effects of climate change in urban areas. It protects a rich biodiversity ecosystem that includes animals, insects, plants and trees, many of which are under serious threat," Ramesh said.

It will be a safe home for migratory birds arriving from Europe, Central Asia, Himalayan regions and the Arctic Circle, he noted.

"The Karnataka government is demonstrating how economic growth, social development and ecological sustainability can go hand-in-hand, as indeed they must at all times. This is a model for other states as well," the Congress general secretary said.

A notification dated February 24 states that the Karnataka government deemed it desirable to declare the specified area as the Greater Hesaraghatta Grassland Conservation Reserve due to its ecological, faunal, floral and geomorphological significance.

The government issued the notification to protect, propagate and develop the grassland, its wildlife and the crucial catchment area around Hesaraghatta, which serves as one of Bengaluru's water sources.

It clarified that the conservation reserve would not include any 'patta land' or affect existing rights.

The privileges of surrounding villagers will remain unaffected by this notification, it added.