I wanted to take the Tricolour to the highest peak of every Indian state

Ever since the Har Ghar Tiranga HGT campaign was launched last year to encourage people to bring the Tricolour home to mark the 75th year of Indiarsquos Independence an Army officer has nursed the desire to scale up the campaign Literally ldquoI wanted to take the Tricolour to the highest peak of every Indian staterdquo says Colonel Ranveer Singh Jamwal who has named his initiative Har Shikhar Tiranga HSTThe 48yearold Colonel Jamwal heads the National Institute of Mountaineering and Adventure Sports NIMAS and is originally from Badhori in Jammursquos Samba district Having already scaled all the seven highest summitsmdashthe highest mountain in each of the seven continentsmdashand conquered Mt Everest thrice 2012 2013 and 2016 he was aware of the significance and preparation needed for a campaign of this magnitudeCol Jamwal on Mount Vinson which is the highest peak in Antarctica The Army man has scaled all the highest summits of the seven continentsThe topography weather and terrain were going to be different for all summits says the third generation Army man ldquoIrsquove never put anyone on my team or myself in extreme danger during climbs we only take calculated risksrdquo shares the colonel The 360degree preparation he says included handpicking a team of ldquoseven samuraisrdquomdashall members of the Army on deputation with NIMAS They were selected after a physical fitness test and rigorous training on higher altitudesThe enthusiastic response from senior authorities in the Ministry of Defence was a huge morale booster ldquoA letter from the Ministry was formally sent to the chief secretaries of all the states informing them of our campaign which made coordination with local authorities easierrdquo says the colonel who is a recipient of the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award Indiarsquos highest honour for adventure sportsReceiving the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award at the hands of President Pranab MukherjeeThe campaign kicked off in October 2022 and will conclude in October this year ldquoWe began with summiting Mt Gorichen in Arunachal Pradesh and will end at Mt Jongsong in Sikkimrdquo Col Jamwal tells midday The team has already completed 16 of the 28 states and has 12 more to go including Sosogad 3366ft in Goa Anamudi 8842 ft in Kerala and Jongsong 24482 ft in Sikkim ldquoOur relationship with the flag has always been more formal and institutional and not personal When the HGT campaign brought the national banner to every home it established and underlined a personal connection to the flagrdquo he says HST he says will help in furthering the pride in the TricolourTwo weeks ago on August 15 Col Jamwal and his team scaled Maharashtrarsquos highest peak Kalsubai 1646 metres elevation in less than three hours The logistics for each summit are completely different ldquoSikkimrsquos Mt Jongsong has a window period of little over a month in September At 7462 metres this is the 57th highest peak in the world and located close to the tripoint of the IndiaNepalChina boundary Creating camps en route and taking them down when we return also takes timerdquo An environment conservationist Col Jamwal says he is particular about keeping every summit clean The Har Shikhar Tiranga team at Kalsubai in Akole taluka which at 1646 metres is Maharashtrarsquos tallest peakHST has also become a major milestone in Indiarsquos cartographic journey ldquoDuring research we realised some states werenrsquot even aware of their highest peak or there were multiple claimants to the titlerdquo he says adding ldquoHST has spurred the states to use the latest technology to establish correct information for posterityrdquo He cites the example of Punjab where the HST team was told that the highest mountain was Naina Devi ldquoBut that is a whole mountain range and we had to mark the highest point on that rangerdquoHis spouse Kiran used to be nervous about his adventures ldquoMy husband first scaled the 5393 mtall Mt Machoi in Ladakh in October 2007 At the time therersquod be long anxious periods with no word from him due to lack of connectivityrdquo she tells us Over the years she got used to the idea ldquoBut there was always this niggling worry at the back of my mindrdquoThat has changed with HST ldquoIrsquom now the weather woman for the campaign Whenever they are summiting I keep giving them local weather updates about the region This means he has to call me dailyrdquo she laughs Col Jamwal admits that Kiran has had a big role to play in his achievements ldquoIf she hadnrsquot taken over the responsibility of running the family and home including caring for our children and both our parents Irsquod never achieve my dreamrdquo