Birth Tales

olkata Trekkers Youth, an organization for mountaineers, trekkers, and adventure lovers, was born on 4th February 1985 (21st Magh, 1391). In the year 1983, some members of Scouters and rovers of Eastern Railway went for a Trek & Exploration to Sandakfu under the leadership of Shri Sukhendu Mukherjee. On their very first step, they realized the need for an organization. After their return from Sandakfu, they get in touch with the Eastern Railway officials with a proposal of the foundation of a Mountaineering Club. But due to some technical difficulties regarding rules and regulations, the concept doesn’t succeed to come into reality. However, with a holy thought of unity, they first met under the Pagoda in the Eden Gardens, Kolkata, and the foundation stone of this organization was laid verbally.

The concept of such a Mountaineering Club was the brainchild of Shri Sukhendu Mukherjee. These youngsters constituted a memorandum of the regulations and the vision of the club and they applied to the Government of West Bengal for the registration as a Mountaineering Organisation. The following persons were the member of the 1st Governing Body

President- Shri Nadia Ranjan Bose, Vice-President-Shri Ashim Kumar Ghosh Chowdhury, Secretary-Shri Shibaprosad Das, Treasurer-Shri Sujay Kumar Dutta, Quarter-Master- Shri Rabindranath Chowdhury, Members-Shri Atin Kumar Ghosh Chowdhury, Shri Mrinal Kanti Dutta, Shri Bijay Kumar Sanyal, and Shri Ravi Kumar Srivastav.

It commenced a journey with some of the members of the Eastern Railway Bharat Scouts & Guides and some other enthusiastic Youths. Our first President Sri Nadia Ranjan Bose named our club "Trekkers Youth." Meanwhile, Shri Ashim Kumar Ghosh Chowdhury designed our beautiful club logo.

With great hope and enthusiasm, on our own, we organized a trek to Ayodhya Hills in Purulia with the 6 members. There we also discussed the future activities of our club.

Just before the official inauguration, we faced two setbacks:-

The Government Registration Office informed, that we will have to register our club name as Calcutta Trekkers Youth instead of Trekkers Youth.

On 19th September 1984, Shri Sukhendhu Mukherjee fell in a hidden crevasse in an expedition to Mt. Kamet and never to return. This Kamet Expedition was organized by the Parvat Abhijatri Sangha under the Anandabazar Patrika group.

Such a huge blow before the inauguration almost winded us. A large number of senior mountaineers and trekkers of that time comforted us. We took an oath to make Shri Sukhendhu Mukherjee's dream a true. Even today on 19th September we reminisce him and find renewed vigor and inspiration.

Now there was no looking back. The Youths met again under the Pagoda of the Eden Garden on 4the February 1985. To fulfill the dream of Sukhenduda, the youths officially announced the establishment of CALCUTTA TREKKERS YOUTH. Every year we observed our official birthday on 4th February. We registered under Society Registration Act with the name CALCUTTA TREKKERS YOUTH vide Registration No. S/48635 dated 5th June 1985 at the registered address of 175/2, Manicktala Main Road, P.O. Kankurgachi, Kolkata-700054 and communication address is 243/2B/1, A.P.C. Road, Block - A, Flat - 4D, Kolkata - 700006, West Bengal. We are the 64th registered mountaineering club under the Govt. of W. B. Within one year we achieved 38 members, out of them only 4 members namely, Shri Nadia Ranjan Bose, Shri Ashim Kumar Ghosh Chowdhury, Shri Bijay Kumar Sanyal, and Shri Bhaskar Das are still actively associated with the club. Shri Santi Sekhar Bose was also an active front liner from the beginning, till his last breath.

We could not have gone ahead in our endeavor without the support of Shri Kalyan Chakraborty (Giri-Doot), Shri Prodyut Kumar Chattopadhyay and Shri Sankar Prosad Biswas (Jagada) (Parvat Abhijatri Sangha), Shri Biswapati Pramanik and Shri Nishit Kumar Chakraborty (Himarohi), Shri Sanatan Bhattacharjee, Shri Ranjit Rit & Shri Dilip Kumar Bhattacharjee (Climbers Group) and personally Shri Sambhunath Das, Shri Ashrumoy Guha Thakuratha, Shri Subhash Kantha Roy, Shri Kankan Kumar Roy, Shri Kamal Kumar Guha, Shri Amulya Sen, Shri Kalyan Bhattacharjee, Dr. Tridib Kumar Basu, Shri Ratan Lal Biswas, Shri Rabindranath Chatterjee, and Shri Ajit Kumar Biswas. Renowned Mountaineer and Scientist (Antarctic Expedition) Ms. Sudipta Sengupta unveiled our club flag in a memorable function chaired by Shri Sambhunath Das.

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Setting Out

n a Gazette Notification (No.376-Home (Cons.) at 27.12.2000), Govt. of WB proposed that Calcutta may be renamed as Kolkata. Govt. of India accepted the proposal vide their Notification No.11/22/99-M&G, New Delhi dt.11th Jan 2001.

This caused us a great deal of administrative difficulty. Thus we decided to apply for a name change. We held a special AGM on 14th July 2003 at E. Rly. BS&G, Narikeldanga Group's scout den. The minutes of this AGM were submitted to the Society Registration Office. Finally in a letter from the Society Registration Office (No-S/220 dt.8th Aug 2003) on 29th July 2003 officially our club changed the name for the second time to 'KOLKATA TREKKERS YOUTH'.

Earlier on 4th July 2003 in a ceremony at Jibanananda Sabhaghar, our newly named club flag and banner were unveiled by eminent mountaineer Smt. Dipali Sinha and Shri Subhash Kantha Roy.

We organized our officially first trek to Muktinath in Nepal Himalaya (6th Dec 1985). Gradually members were getting trained in Basic and Advance Mountaineering Course. We also started to procure equipment for our expeditions and Rock Climbing Course (RCC). In 1986 with the help of Climbers Group, Sreerampur, we organized our 1st RCC with 18 male trainees including 2 differently able candidates and 5 female trainees. Finally, in 1987 we organized our first Expedition to Mt. Kedardome (6831mtrs./22,410fts). Shri Prodyut Kr. Chattopadhyay led our team and we successfully climbed Mt. Kedardome.

After Kdardome Expeditions we have organised Mt. Golap Kangri & Mt. Parcha Kangri, Mt. Kalanag (twice), Mt. Karcha, Un-named peak in Lossar (twice), Mt. Sesar Rang, Mt. Kangla Tarbo, Mt. Shiva, Mt. Hathi, Mt. CB-13, Mt. Deo Tibba, Mt. Jogin-II, Mt. M-4 (Mulkilla), Mt. CB-44, Mt. Hanuman Tibba, Mt. Yunam, Mt. Chamser Kangri & Mt. Lungser Kangri, Mt. Gangstang, Mt. Fluted, Mt. Rubal Kang, Mt. Shigri Parbat, Mt. M-1 & Mt. M-10, Mt. Manirang, Mt. Koa Rang-II, Mt. Zara I &II, Mt. Chemma, Mt. Tharkot, Mt. Gangotri-I, Mt. Lalona, Mt. Kang Yat Se and Mt. CB-14 Expedition. To celebrate the millennium in 2000 we have organized two expeditions namely Mt. Sudarsan & Mt. Shekerbeh. In 2019 we have organized three Expeditions.

With time Kolkata Trekkers Youth has organized Expedition outside India also. In 2018 & 2019 we successfully Climber Mt. Kilimanjaro and Mt. Elbrus.

We also regularly organise high altitude treks, costal treks, desert treks, cycling, river side treks, jungle treks, outings etc.

Realizing the necessity of Map reading in adventure, for the first time in eastern India we organize Map Reading Training. It was adorned by the whole adventure activist.

To explore the jungles and bio-diversity just near to us we organized Sundarban exploration camps which were well appreciated among the adventure lovers.

Our own publication ‘Kamet’ is a highly accepted mountain journal among our peers. It was published yearly from 1985 but nowadays, due to financial reasons, we publish it once in two years.

In 2002 July we published our first issue of the newsletter ‘Pinnacle0’. This is also a once-in-two-year issue.

Our club also has in its possession a respectable number of adventure-related books, maps, and journals.

We started an adventure program with the places whose names start with the letter 'B'. It was lovingly called 'BAT'. Our 1st BAT was held in 1992 with 92 campers in Buxaduar. We held our 9th BAT in 2000 in Barmul. In between, we had held this program in Bhimbadh, Bhutanghat, Badampahar, Barsuan, Bero, Beharinath. Thereafter it was called Adventure Trail (AT) and the 1st AT was held at Kayrabera in 2001. Then at Gorubathan (2002), Mong-Pong (2003), Palash Kanan (2004), Rohini (2005), Jhalong (2006), Panchalingeswar (2007) & Baroghuttu (2008), Pachmarhi (2009), Jayanti (2010), Garuchira (2011), Rinchenpong (2012), Korab (2013), Dhotre (2014), Rishi Khola (2015), Amadob (2016), Dwaringbari(2017) Hatipota(2018) and Chel Chatong(2019).

Our club published a directory 'Thikana dot com (Part-I)' comprising of addresses of everything related to adventure sports. In 2003 we held an audiovisual mountain photography workshop. We have organized an exhibition show of mountaineering equipment at different Melas and Schools. We also organize slide shows at the invitation of different institutions.

We held a mountain/eco/Himalaya quiz. In 2006 we organized a sky watching the course.

Two of our memorable programs are:-1) Two-man cycling from Gomukh to Gangasagar in 63 days and 2) All ladies Himalayan trek.

In sport climbing our male and female participants have achieved laurels at state, zonal and national levels. With the association of ITC, we have organized survival camps for their staff and their wards. We also take part in different social activities, mountaineering meets, seminars, symposiums, etc.

This year we have …….. members including 14 life members (14 Life Members acquired our newly changed name "Kolkata Trekkers Youth" card as notified earlier. The remaining life members are requested to acquire their card at the earliest). We have ….. annual members. Among them, we have 39 members trained in basic and advanced mountaineering and 2 members in skiing.

I

MEMORANDUM OF ASSOCIATION

Name of the Society: Calcutta Trekkers Youth.

Address : 175/2, Manicktala Main Road, P.O. : Kankurgachi, Calcutta - 700054.

Objects : The objects of the Society are to care for the Educational and Social needs and well-being of all citizen of India and more particularly in the territory, for the time being known as the State of West Bengal. In particular the aims and objects of the Society are :-

a) to organise adventure programmes including mountaineering, trekking, hill-walking etc.

b) to educate 'Young" people for upliftment and motived in adventurous which will ultimately contribute to the national integration.

c) to organise seminars, symposium lectures and training programmes for better achievement in the field of mountaineering, trekking, expedition etc;

d) to organise exploration in the field of scientifically research, nature study, social study and community problems;

e) to organise 'Youth Activities' (both men and women) to develop national integration, love for the country & society;

f) to raise fund as and when required for the above purposes by the suitable means as will be decided by the committee of management;

g) to acquire and take over-all or any part of the immoveable or moveable properties of any like society or institution or any one whomsoever for the purposes of the Club.

Governing Body : The names, function, address and occupation of the members constituting the First Governing body to whom by the rules of the Club the management of its affairs is entrusted, that is, the President, the Vice President and the Secretary and other executive members for the time being are set-forth hereunder :-