Padma Bhushan: in the field of Sports-Mountaineering

Bachendri Pal, an Indian mountaineer, is the first Indian women to climb the Mount Everest, the highest mountain peak in the world. She achieved this feat in 1984 and was awarded the Padma Shri subsequently. She is also a social worker and carried out relief work during the Uttarakhand floods. She is an inspiration to many women to go beyond household work and overcome gender bias.

Other key facts:

• Premlata Agarwal is an Indian mountaineer to climb the ‘seven summits’ highest mountain in each of the seven continents.
  
  
• Edmund Hillary (New Zealand) and Tenzing Norgay (Nepali-Indian) were the first the scale the Mount Everest in 1953.
  
  
• The Indian Army included a team of Avtar Singh Cheema, H.P.S Ahluwalia, Nawang Gombu, Sonam Wangyal , Sonam Gaytso, Harish Singh Rawat and Chandra Prakash Vohra , were the first Indians to climb the Mt. Everest in 1965.