A series of adventure activities launched by the Kolkata-headquartered Eastern Command of the Indian Army over three months ago to promote the tourism potential of the Northeast culminated on December 7.
The Trans Theatre Adventure Activities along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), which included mountaineering expeditions, white water rafting, mountain biking and trekking, spanned from Sikkim to Arunachal Pradesh.
The unique feature of the campaign was that it included civilians, alongside military personnel.
On August 25, the event was flagged off at Gangtok, the capital of Sikkim, by governor Ganga Prasad, chief minister Prem Singh Tamang and the general officer commanding of Trishakti Corps, Lt Gen Tarun Kumar Aich.
On December 7, the campaign culminated at the Golden Pagoda in Namsai district of Arunachal Pradesh in the presence of Chowna Mein, the deputy chief minister.
The campaign included six mountaineering expeditions, seven more than 700km treks up to an altitude of 16,500ft, six cycling expeditions over 1,000km and three white water-rafting expeditions.
“Most of these routes along the LAC have never been explored by civilians. Now, with active participation, they could visit these forward areas, summit the mountain peaks near the LAC. Eleven points along the LAC were covered during the activities with the most prominent being the summit of Jongsong Peak situated at the tri-junction of India, Nepal and Tibet,” said an officer.
Mountaineers Satyarup Siddhanta, Tiyash Mukhopadhyay and Rajeev Kumar Mondal from Kolkata and Varuna Raina from Jammu and Kashmir participated in the summit.