NEW DELHI: CISF sub-inspector Geeta Samota has become the first CISF personnel to scale Mt Everest, the world’s highest peak at 8,849 metres.The feat is a culmination of her ‘seven summits’ dream that took wing in 2019 with her becoming the first woman from a central armed police force (CAPF) to climb Mount Satopanth in Uttarakhand.Having trained at the ITBP’s mountaineering training institute in Auli, Geeta went on to scale Mount Lobuche in Nepal the same year. Even COVID pandemic could not break her streak, as she went on to climb four more peaks over a span of six months and 27 days between 2021 and early 2022. These included Mount Kosciuszko (2,228 mtrs) in Australia, Mount Elbrus ((5,642 mtrs) in Russia, Mount Kilimanjaro (5,895 mtrs) in Tanzania, andMonday, Geeta achieved the most ambitious challenge of her mountaineering career, as she stood on Everest peak, the ‘roof of the world’.Geeta comes from a modest background, having grown up with four sisters in Chak village of Sikar district, Rajasthan. Growing up, she would hear tales of boys’ accomplishments but noticed a void in stories celebrating girls’ achievements, an observation that ignited a quiet determination within her to make her mark. A promising hockey player in college, she had to step away due to an injury and joined the CISF in 2011.At CISF, Geeta noticed that mountaineering was a less-trodden path; CISF did not even have a dedicated mountaineering team at the time. She astutely recognized this as an opportunity and became the only female participant in the 2015 mountaineering course batch at the ITBP training institute in Auli.Geeta has earlier been conferred with the International Women’s Day award in 2023 by the Delhi Commission for Women and the ‘Giving Wings to Dreams Award 2023’ by the ministry of civil aviation.The CISF has been a steadfast supporter of her mountaineering endeavors, sending her on expeditions and granting her financial backing. On Tuesday, CISF DG congratulated SI Geeta, with the force describing her as a beacon of inspiration for the youth of India and source of immense pride for the entire CAPF fraterinty.CISF now plans to send a full mountaineering team to scale Mt Everest in 2026.
