Four Himalayan peaks near Gangotri glacier named after former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee

In honour of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, four Himalayan peaks near Gangotri glacier have been named after him, an official said on Saturday.

The four peaks named after Vajpayee are located at 6,557, 6,566, 6,160 and 6,100 metres on the right flank of Gangotri glacier, said Colonel Amit Bisht, principal of Nehru Institute of Mountaineering and leader of the mountain climbing team. The peaks have been named Atal-1, 2, 3 and 4, he said.

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The climbers team led by Colonel Bisht recently scaled the newly named peaks. The team hoisted the national tricolour on each of the peaks located near Sudarshan and Saifi peaks in Raktvan valley, and returned after the climb on Saturday. 

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The expedition, jointly conducted by NIM and the tourism department, was flagged off from Dehradun on October 4 by Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat.

On September 28, Uttarakhand Tourism Minister Satpal Maharaj had said, “We plan to name an unknown peak in the Himalayas after former prime minister Vajpayee. A team of mountaineers will soon start on an expedition in search of it”.

The idea to christen a peak after Vajpayee was conceived in view of the former prime minister’s love of nature and the mountains, Maharaj had said.

The former prime minister and Bharatiya Janata Paty (BJP) stalwart passed away at AIIMS hospital in New Delhi on August 16 following multiple organs failure after prolonged illness.