Kolkata: Mountains have certainly enchanted Malli Mastan Babu - an alumnus of both the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (IIM-C) and Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur (IIT-KGP). So much that he left a lucrative career and took to mountaineering.
Malli Mastan Babu has several Mountaineering world records to his name - Fastest 7 Summiteer in the world (172 days, Jan 19 - July 10, 2006); Only person in the world to accomplish 7 summits on seven different days of the week and one in each calendar month besides several other records.
Now, in a first-of-its-kind initiative to highlight the impacts of Global warming in the Himalayan Region, Babu will cover 2000 kms of the Trans-Himalayan Region in a span of 125 days.
Set to begin on September 12, the expedition will feature as many 5000m passes that exists between Mt. Everest and Mt. Kailash - the two most sacred mountains on earth. Babu will walk and climb through nine National Parks, 20 high passes above 5000m and about 80% of the Himalayan region covering as much as 2000 kms.
Babu mentions another cause of the expedition - the Socio-Economic study and suggesting reforms of Himalayan population.
"The changing patterns of glaciers (receding etc) as well unpredictable rainfall leading to landslides will have direct impact on the lives of native people on their dependence on farming for food and transportation to fetch basic commodities for living and medical needs", Babu says.
"The unpredictable weather pattern means no knowledge about which months the Himalayan beauty is at best and so disappointment in the experience. No good views, rivers welling so unable to negotiate the routes, sudden landslides and the villagers not having local food to supplement the tourists during the season may result some chaos in worst case deaths. I began the campaign to towards decreasing the rate of global warming and eventually may hope to reduce the impact", he adds.
Born in a middle class agricultural family in a small village called 'Gandhi Janasangam' in the Nellore District of Andhra Pradesh, Babu did his primary schooling from Sainik School Korukonda, Andhra Pradesh.
He graduated in Electrical Engineering from the National Institute of Technology, Jamshedpur (1992-1996), Master of Technology in Electronics from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur (1996-1998) and Post Graduate Diploma in Management from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (2002-2004).
He also worked as senior software engineer at Satyam Computer Services Ltd for three years from 1998-2001.
source: indiaedunews.net