Adventure Promotion
Yesterday, Today and tomorrow
Dr. T. Venkatesh, SPARK, Bangalore
Past
I am recalling from my memories the way in which adventure activities were initiated in Karnataka, and to some extent how it took the present shape. In early sixties, unlike for any other sports, there was no formal group or a body to motivate youth in adventure activities. This may be due to the fact that adventure was totally new to the youth of those days. It was in those days of total unawareness, this non-competitive sports was conceived, only after hearing many Himalayan expeditions to Mt. Everest.
Government College of Arts and Science, most popularly called GAS college established an adventure wing, under the banner of Special Coy of NCC, guided by Maj. Narayan Singh, who latter became the President of Karnataka Mountaineering Association (KMA), and Maj. G.T. Narayana Rao. Soon after which, a few of its cadets successfully completed their basic Mountaineering training. I still remember the names of a few, such as Mr. Pinto, Mr. Lakshmi Narayan, Mr. Mohan who were instrumental in the formation of a Special Coy for adventure activities. The Coy initially concentrated on rock climbing. Earlier to this, Mrs. Usha Ramaiah, then Ms. Usha Sarpeshkar was the first amongst all of us to get trained in mountaineering.
Apart from the formation of an activity group at the college level, efforts of few individuals lead to the establishment of the Mysore Mountaineering Association (now KMA) under the leadership of Mr. Netkalappa. Usha, Govindaraj and Pinto were among the few I remember, who were actively involved in the early period. Mr. Govinda Raj, later established another fine organization, the Deccan Mountaineering Association (DMA) at Mysore.
In the sixties, the 12th battalion of NCC, Bangalore; Mysore Mountaineering Association (MMA) in Bangalore and DMA were the only three organizations involved in promoting adventure activities. I still remember the log book maintained during those days about the outing reports and the activities at MMA. At GAS college, as a student, I was selected to join the Special Coy. On all Sundays we had to meet at 6 a.m. sharp for our rock climbing outings at Hebbal rocks. We were using hemp ropes for protection. The rocks we were visiting for our activities around Bangalore are no longer there. Thanks to quarry contractors! We had no knowledge of equipment used by rock climbers till we received four iron carabineers from Darjeeling in 1963. We could get two climbing ropes made of nylon when two instructors reached Bangalore to train most of us in basics in rock climbing. The training camp was organized at Ramanagaram. In the mean time members of KMA regularly met and organized trekking to many places in Karnataka. DMA at Mysore remained active on similar lines of adventure promotion.
In late sixties, Youth Hostel Association (YHA) of India launched Himalayan treks to the youth of our country. Mr. C.N.N. Raju as the State Secretary for YHA contributed to a great extent to the field of adventure promotion. Hundreds of our youth got an opportunity to trek in Himalayas mainly due to the efforts of YHA. By this time through NCC and KMA many boys and girls got the opportunity to do their basic mountaineering courses at the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute (HMI), Darjeeling; Nehru Institute of Mountaineering (NIM), Uttarkashi and Western Himalayan Mountaineering Institute (WHMI), Manali.
A team comprising NCC cadets from GAS college organized an explorative trek to Kudremukh, which was sponsored by the Bangalore University. Maj. C.T. Narayana Rao had documented the activities in a book published by the Bangalore University. Perhaps this is the first book on adventure published in the history of Karnataka. Later, Mr. D.N.S. Murthy published several books on adventure. Today, we have a large number of writers in this field, of whom Dr. Sridhar, Mr. Ganguli have made great contribution. All these publications are in Kannada.
It was only when Mr. Tensing visited KMA in early seventies, youth of Bangalore city took adventure sports as some thing they had missed. By this time many had either trekked in Himalayas or had undergone training in mountaineering. Some of our friends participated as members of various teams, which ventured to climb many peaks in Himalayas. We also had a visitor Mr. Allen from Australia in the late seventies to our city, and he donated some rock climbing gears, which we had only seen in the photographs. He had taken us to Ramanagaram and to near by Dobspet for imparting training.
In 1979, KMA launched its first sponsored expedition to Mt. Kolohoi in Kashmir Himalayas. In 1980 SPARK and KMA organized the expedition to the same peak and successfully climbed the peak. The Government of Karnataka recorded this as the first Himalayan climb in the history of Karnataka. In 1980's large number of adventure clubs were established in schools and colleges. BMS College of Engineering was first amongst the engineering colleges to establish their mountaineering club in the city. In the year 1988 General P.P. Kumaramangalam, DSO took over as the first Chairman of the newly established General Thimayya National Academy of Adventure (GETHNAA) in Karnataka. The efforts of late Brigadier Gyan Singh could be recalled in the establishment of GETHNAA, which played a great role in taking adventure sports facilities to the grass root level in Karnataka. Till date, the work done by the Academy is commendable with financial assistance from both state and central governments. GETHNAA has established terrestrial, aqua and aero- adventure activities.
Present
I understand that there are more than 300 adventure clubs in Karanataka. Bangalore and Mysore has the large share in this. Students in these cities are blessed with the facilities and access to these activities unlike rural youth. Good number of training programs are sponsored by the University Grants Commission (UGC) through National Adventure Foundation, New Delhi. The Indian Mountaineering Foundation (IMF) has taken steps in getting our youth exposed to the modern techniques with the help of experts in the field from other countries. Sports climbing has attracted large number of our youth who are doing well. Many voluntary organizations and individuals have made valuable contribution in this direction. GETHNAA has the artificial climbing wall constructed under the supervision of people who are active climbers.
In early nineties several seminars and workshops organized in the field of adventure by GETHNAA, and documentation by the voluntary organization, AROHI and Kannada Sahitya Parishad have given boost to adventure activities. Youth of our state have participated in the national integration meets on adventure at various places in our country. From mid nineties, in our state, adventure activities are considered along with environmental aspects by many organizations and individuals. Adventure now is renamed by many, as outward bound recreational activity.
Recent developments in the field of outward bound recreational activity is heading towards adventure tourism, Eco-tourism and outward bound team building to corporate executives. Today, all adventure activities are in the undisturbed environment such as forests, mountains, rivers and valleys. As the ecological imbalance brought about by the developments are noticed by all of us, it is adventure lover who is always on the lap of nature, will identify the damage in the beginning and will make all efforts to rectify the same. All environmental concerns are the main activity of adventure seeker today. Many professional bodies have cropping up and even voluntary outward bound organizations are involving in this area. People trained in outward bound are assisting professionals in out-door management groups. It is heartening to note these days that big corporate bodies getting involved in their team building efforts through adventure based activities. This is giving a big boost to the field and it would sustain only when qualified and experienced persons take the responsibilities of organizing such activities. There is an element of danger when untrained persons venture in similar activities, where skills and professional competency are required.
Future
The future of outward bound activities have great potentials at corporate level. All over the world corporate bodies are looking forward for the most effective way of reaching their clients. It is in this direction corporate bodies may even establish separate cells or divisions to govern their outward bound activities. When this happens there is a great demand for trained personnel. Apart from this, universities have started thinking of establishing courses in outward bound activities. There may be a great need for the trained faculty in this field. This will open another avenue for trained adventurers. As outward bound activities covers adventure as one side of the coin and the nature awareness and conservation as the other side, all environmental awareness programs are complemented by the adventure activities. It is only an adventurer who will take the message of the devastation in nature to the people, and will make efforts for the rectification of the same.
An outdoor man of tomorrow is the conservator of our environment today, as he knows that unless some thing in nature is left behind, he will not be able to advent with nature. Elementary adventure skills requires understanding of laws of nature. Though nature has provided us everything, we have not identified the basic differences between our needs and wants. An out-door man is the one who learns to live with basic needs, and with limited impact to his environment. The future of our youth is aimed at "Conservation through Adventure".
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