Col. Anand Swaroop and Subedar Rajendra Singh Jalal (both land adventure), Bhakti Sharma (water adventure) and Mandip Singh Soin (life time achievement) are selected for the award that carries a statue, a certificate and cash prize of Rs 5 lakh. The awards will be presented by the President of India during the Sports Awards ceremony on August 29.
Swaroop, who is currently working with the Army Adventure Wing, has been climbing extensively since 1997. He has also led expedition to various peaks including Mt. Everest, Mt. Satopanth, Friendship Peak Nyegi Kangtsang and Mt. Cho Oyu.
He has been a member of Indian Expedition to Antartica, led the first Indian Ski Expedition from Coast to Antartica to South Pole in 2011, travelling a distance of 1170kms.
Jalal, working with the Armed Forces, has been actively climbing high mountains and was a summitteer to Indian Army Mt. Manaslu Expedition 2011. He has scaled four peaks above eight thousand meters height. Because of impeccable record in the field of mountaineering, he is elected and called for all challenging expeditions undertaken by the Army.
Bhakti Sharma, a student pursuing her MBA, in August 2010 successfully swam in the Arctic Ocean. She also has the distinction of crossing the strait of Gibraltor from Tarifa (Spain) to Sainar Point (Marroco).
Soin has spend over four decades contributing to the popularity and growth of adventure. His activities have spanned five continents, in a holistic manner often with niche skill like photography, travel writing, ecological advance and lectures. He has been involved in adventure from skydiving to balloon safari to rafting to rain forest expedition trek expedition to mountain expedition.
