PM Modi to send off 40-member TSAF team from Delhi
Jamshedpur: Seven Everesters, five IIT graduates, 1 Radio Jockey, 26 Tata Steel employees working in areas like Engineering & Projects, Marketing & Sales, Information Technology, Operations and Adventure including 21 women and 19 men will be part of the rafting expedition “Mission Gange” from Oct 2nd to Oct 31st, 2018 in partnership with National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG).
The Tata Steel Adventure Foundation (TSAF) is organizing a month-long rafting expedition led by first Indian woman Everester Bachendri Pal.
The mission will focus on cleaning the river Ganga and spreading awareness on waste management. NMCG is providing support for waste disposal, involving volunteers, NGOs and schools at various locations. They are also assisting in disseminating information about the expedition through their channels and in coordination with local authorities, said Bachendri Pal.
Addressing a press meet at TSAF office on Thursday, Bachendri Pal said, this mission has not been planned overnite but it�s the result of the team effort. ‘It is in our DNA and we are always ready to work for the society. We have always been into adventure but this time we shifted our focus from adventure to cleanliness after being greatly inspired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi�s �Namami Gange� campaign for cleaning the Ganga, a truly life- sustaining source of our country. After returning from Everest in 1984, in all Outdoor Leadership Programmes that I have been conducting through the Tata Steel Adventure Foundation �Care for the Environment� has been given paramount importance.
She informed that the Mission Gange is sponsored by Tata Steel and supported by the government. The team will leave Jamshedpur on October 1 and initially assemble at Delhi on Oct 3 where Prime Minister Narendra Modi is slated to attend the send-off ceremony. Thereafter they will move to Haridwar where the expedition will start on October 5th, traversing through Bijnor – Farukhabad – Kanpur – Allahabad – Varanasi – Buxar and ending at Patna on October 30th , covering a distance of 1500 kms downstream. The team members will stay at each city for 2-3 days where they will organize cleaning and awareness drives with the help of local support. They will also visit schools and other institutions to create awareness on waste management, pollution in Ganga and on climate change.
�We want to make this a mass movement and reach out to as large an audience as possible and be the agent of change. Our team is working extensively to widen our impact and create a buzz around the name of the Mission so as to attract as many supporters and changemakers as possible and convert the Mission into a Movement. The team is enthused about the Mission and is all set to give it�s best to make the Mission a huge success. 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�, added Bachendri Pal.
TSAF senior manager Hemant Gupta said, we have selected a very diverse and industrious team of 40 members
for the Mission from the 200 who applied to be part of the mission. Talking about the mission, Gupta informed that we will be covering a distance of 160-170 kms per day and this a people’s movement as this has been a burning issue in the country.
Everester further said that social media is a buzz with ‘Mission Gange’ activities with people extending their support towards the mission and are following the activities on Twitter, face book, Instagram and YouTube.
The team includes seven Everesters (Premlata Agarwal (1st Indian woman to climb 7 summits), Hemant Gupta, R S Pal, Binita Soren, Chetna Sahoo, Poonam Rana and Swarnlata Dalai). 26 Tata Steel employees working in areas like Engineering & Projects, Marketing & Sales, Information Technology, Operations, Adventure, 5 IIT graduates and 1 Radio Jockey.
The fourty team members include female- Bachendri Pal, Nidhi Tiwari, Heena Kumari, Binita Soren, Chitrali Sarkar, Nisha, Sneha Biswas, Amla Rawat, Anita Vaidya, Neekita Patel, Chetna Sahoo, Gangotri Indumati, Gudia Rani, Poonam Rana, Premlata Agrawal, Swarnlata Dalai, Khusboo Kumari, Stuti Bala, Sushila Mahato, Sidhi Kumari and Sushma Bissa.
The male members include Harish Kumar Sharma, Hemant Gupta, Mohan Rawat, Pranav Mamgain, RS Pal, Rahul Bahuguna, Som Mardi, Varun Sharma, Amratendu Baral, Rajesh Mallik, Deepak Kumar Sah, Arpit Sharma, Vinay Chelwani, Twesh Upadhyay, Lingaraj Nahak, Gaurav Anand, Ankit Agrahari, Rishi Kumar and Arun Kumar.