Captain Mohan Singh Kohli speaks at Mussoorie Writers' Festival Part - 6

2019-04-25 6

Captain Mohan Kohli speaks at Mussoorie Writers' Festival, he says, "The americans were getting very worried now all sort of meters were used but no radio activity were found anywhere on the mountain. I had sent a foot company of 25 people and there was a massive search operation going on but they finally felt that there a Husky Helicopters they went to NATO and two of them were pulled out these are wonderful Helicopters they could go to any height. They both came to Nanda Devi and after lying in Gochar they flew up and they went to camp for side and drew 10 cylinders of feul gas and out of them only two could be found at the bottom 10 was stuck somewhere on the way so there is no way to find out where our nuclear generator might have gone".


Captain Mohan Singh Kohli is an internationally renowned Indian mountaineer. An officer in the Indian Navy who joined the Indo-Tibetan Border Police, he led the 1965 Indian expedition which put nine men on the summit of Everest, a world record which lasted for 17 years. He may be most famous though for revealing 1960s' Himalayan expeditions for the CIA that placed equipment to monitor nuclear sites in China. Mohan Kohli was President of the Indian Mountaineering Foundation from 1989 to 1993. In 1989, he co-founded the Himalayan Environment Trust. He has been honoured with the Padma Bhushan and Arjuna Award.

Source - Wikipedia

"Mussoorie Writers' EXPERIENCE THE HIMALAYA: A MOUNTAIN FESTIVAL (Nov. 1-4, 2012) celebrated exploration, natural history and mountain culture. Events ranged from a photographic exhibition to a just-released film, The Old Breed, about Steve Swenson's recent ascent of the highest unclimbed summit in the world - Saser Kangri II. Swenson himself, one of America's toughest climbers, spoke about the adventure of this expedition, along with the values and philosophy that drives him to reach extreme heights. A large audience of students, teachers and visitors enjoyed the mountain poetry of Gulzar, accompanied by Pavan Varma and Sukrita Paul Kumar.

Woodstock's Parker Hall was filled with the lyrical folk songs of Nagaland, performed by the Tetseo Sisters. Italian alpinists, Manolo and Herve Bermasse spoke of the challenges they overcome on the mountains and showed films about their perpendicular exploits, while Rekha Bhardwaj sang mountain lyrics together with Bollywood hits. Dr. Charles Clarke, one of Britain's most eminent mountaineers, discussed mountain literature as well as the important traditions of Tibetan medicine. Controversy, politics and intrigue are all a part of Himalayan history and Capt. M. S. Kohli, who led India's first successful ascent of Everest, revealed first-hand details about the joint CIA and Indian Intelligence operation on Nanda Devi during the 1960's.

As part of the same panel, Prof. Shekhar Pathak discussed the legacy of Pandit Nain Singh Rawat, one of Uttarakhand's heroic surveyors, who mapped Tibet in the 19th Century. While an international gathering of climbers spoke of pushing themselves to the limits of endurance on vertical surfaces of ice and rock, Viraf Mehta unveiled prehistoric narratives and images etched on the stones of Ladakh, ancient petroglyphs of snow leopards and ibex. The festival brought together scholars, scientists, authors, artists and mountaineers, including chief guest Loveraj Singh Dharmshaktu, who has climbed Everest four times, as well as many other major Himalayan peaks. Rupin Dang spoke to local idiocyncratic Landour wildlife and "Wilderness Wanderings" while conservation and responsible use of mountain environments was another theme, explored by eco-activist Ishita Khanna and wildlife biologists Pankaj Chandan and Rajarshi Chakraborty of WWF.

On Sunday, Nov. 4, as part of the festival, more than 200 runners competed in the first Mussoorie Half-Marathon, along Mussoorie's Mall Road to a turnaround point at Everest House and a finish line at Woodstock School. Over the four days of the Mountain Festival, participants and audience members drew inspiration from a variety of presentations and performances, all of which emphasized the educational significance and opportunities of our Himalayan heritage."

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