ES Newsdesk

ITANAGAR, Aug 26: Taka Tamut, the  ace mountaineer from the state who conquered Mt. Everest in 2018 has been selected for the prestigious Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award for 2019.
The award will be conferred by President Ram Nath Kovind in a virtual ceremony on August 29 for his achievements in adventure sports. A civil engineer by profession, 27-year old Tamut who hails from the remote Jomlo Mongku village in Siang district was in the news for being a part of the 15-member team that retrieved the bodies of 13 Indian Air Force personnel who died in a tragic AN-32 transporter crash in June 2019. As an acknowledgement, he was conferred the Arunachal Pradesh gold medal award and the AOC-IN-C medal by the IAF for taking part in the rescue operation. Tamut’s heroic scaling of the mighty Mount Everest (8,848 metres) in 2018 without the help of Sherpa has now become a folklore in Arunachal Pradesh. 
He was also part of teams that scaled the Mount Lhotse (8,510 metres) in 2017, Mount Mera (6,300 metres) in 2017 and Mount Stok Kangri (6,153 metres) in 2016.
The Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award is regarded as one of the highest national awards for adventure sports in India and is conferred annually as recognition to achievements in the field of adventure on land, sea and air. Chief Minister Pema Khandu on Wednesday took to Twitter to congratulate Tamut.
Speaking to Eastern Sentinel, Tamut said that he is honoured and grateful on being selected for the prestigious award.
"I dedicate this award to my well-wishers, especially those who have generously contributed donations and provided all support and assistance, because of which I was able to scale Mount Everest and took part in various rescue operations," he said.

"Winning this award would not be possible without the backing from my mountaineering friends. I would also like to remember all the people who were there during all the rescue operations that I had participated in so far, " Taka said.  He  remembered all the team members who went to retrieve bodies of 13 IAF personnel who died in the AN-32 crash in 2019 and participated during a search of a drowned missing person in West Kameng last year.
He informed that the Sports Authority of India, Regional Centre Guwahati, Regional  Director conveyed via telephone on 23 August that his name has been recommended for the prestigious award.
" I have seen and faced several challenges on my way to reach where I am today. But despite all odds, I strived to reach my goal," Taka disclosed appealing those who want to take up mountaineering as a career to have a "never say die attitude".
As Arunachal is lagging behind in adventure sports, I want to share all my knowledge and experience with the next generation and rigorously promote adventure sports in the state, the Everester said.

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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