The club's mission to produce climbers from remote stopped due to a financial crunch

Narkeldanga Trekkers Association (NTA) is one of the prominent mountaineering clubs in West Bengal. The club has another interesting achievement. So far, it is the only mountaineering organization from West Bengal that drove itself toward a noble mission to explore talent in rock climbing and produce quality mountaineers from a district that is termed the most backward among all 23 districts in Bengal. It is Purulia. NTA which has built up Swami Vivekananda Adventure Institute, Mathaburu Hills, Purulia was founded by two climbers, Pijush Sinha and Jyotsna Seth in 2008. Seth has achieved the feat of reaching the base camp of Mt. Everest. But after 2017, due to dire financial distress, it has not been possible for NTA to organize expeditions.

The Achievements despite the Odds

NTA has already organized nearly 14 expeditions and all of those voyages were headed toward more than 7000 meters altitude from sea level. Apart from Jyotsna Seth's expedition to Mt Everest where she had to return from Everest base camp, NTA drew the attention of the media when one of its climbers, the youngest one, Anushka Sinha, aged only 10 years completed Mt. Satopanth expeditions successfully. Pijush Sinha revealed, "Anushka completed the Mt Satopanth expedition successfully in 2017 and it was the last year NTA organized an expedition."

This apart, NTA has organized several basic and advanced courses on rock climbing in Purulia since it began its journey in the Purulia district in 2015. 

NTA Students endeavor to explore talents in Purulia

Subhojit Bannerjee is one of the prominent students of NTA. He completed the basic and advanced courses at Mathaburu hills under the guidance of Pijush Sinha in 2017. Subhojit informed, "First we learned the bouldering method of climbing on the comparatively short-heightened rocks. Then in the advanced course, I climbed on the high peaks in the Mathaburu hills regions, Kardaburu, and Chemtuburu. All were around 700 meters high from the sea level. We learned pitch-climbing in an advanced course." 

Subhojit then earned an instructor's course also and in 2018 he had gone to Sundarban and Hoogly on behalf of NTA as the instructor, completing the course on adventure sports with the young boys. Subhojit who is likely to join West Bengal Police also dreams of going on big expeditions. He said, "I also have dream of going on an Everest expedition as Jyotsna Seth had made. I also had the desire to acquire an instructor's certificate from the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute (HMI) and I know the HMI certificate will make your career in mountaineering. But how can I spend nearly Rs 20 thousand to complete the course? But once I get a job, I will try to fulfill dreams of venturing big expeditions in the Himalayas." 

Subhojit and his friend have already organized basic climbing courses in Purulia. Last year, they organized at Joychandi Paha. Subhojit added, "There are many talented boys and girls who want to become successful climbers in the future. We observed when a basic-climbing course was being organized at the Joychandi Pahar. But mountaineering needs a formidable amount of money and as there is no financial support from any quarter of society, the scenario is so gloomy. The tragic result is that those talented boys and girls, after finishing the basic-climbing courses at Joychandi Pahar are back again to their school life. Somebody has already left Purulia for other states to do a job. Lack of financial support for mountaineering has been the key reason we have not been able to bring out quality mountaineers from Purulia. Still, we have not given up." 

The Financial Crunch

Pijush Sinha lamented that despite having made repeated appeals to different quarters of society including the government, NTA has not received financial grants for mountaineering. The money the state government had given to Jyotsna before her Everest expedition was available after a lot of hard work. Pijush revealed, "I had to run from pillar to post to convince the bureaucrats and finally they sanctioned the money. This apart we have never received any financial assistance for our expeditions. Along with rock climbing, we also got an opportunity to organize seminars on Life-Skill Development Training programs a couple of times. Nehru Yuva Kendra Kolkata and its branch in Purulia, a central government organization supported us financially at the time of these programs. Otherwise, in our last expedition in 2017, I had to borrow more than Rs 1 lakh personally to materialize the Mt Satopanth expedition." 

The Fight Goes On

NTA has not given up. Despite the acute financial crises Pijush Sinha divulged NTA has plans to organize basic-climbing courses in Purulia early next year and explore talent scouting programs. Pijush still desires to engrave the name of NTA in the field of Bengal mountaineering by producing at least one top-quality mountaineer from Purulia.