Captain Mohan Singh Kohli (b. 11 December 1931 at Haripur) is an internationally renowned Indian

mountaineer Mountaineering or alpinism, is a set of outdoor activities that involves ascending tall mountains. Mountaineering-related activities include traditional outdoor climbing, skiing, and traversing via ferratas. Indoor climbing, sport climbing, a ...

. An officer in the

Indian Navy The Indian Navy is the maritime branch of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Navy. The Chief of Naval Staff, a four-star admiral, commands the navy. As a blue-water navy, it operates si ...

who joined the

Indo-Tibetan Border Police The Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) is a border patrol organization of India deployed along its borders with Tibet Autonomous Region. It is one of the seven Central Armed Police Forces, established in 1962 in the aftermath of the Sino-Indi ...

, he led the 1965 Indian expedition which put nine men on the summit of Everest, a world record which lasted for 17 years.

Affiliation

Mohan Singh Kohli was President of the

Indian Mountaineering Foundation Indian Mountaineering Foundation is an apex national body which organize and support, mountaineering and rock climbing expeditions at high altitudes in the Himalayas. The organization also promotes and encourages schemes for related adventure acti ...

from 1989 to 1993. In 1989, he co-founded th
Himalayan Environment Trust
Trekking in The Himalayas was founded by Captain M.S. Kohli who has been climbing many Himalayan Peaks. It was his feeling that not many people in the world can climb Himalayan peaks but many can go to the basecamps of the mountains.

Awards

He has been honoured with the # Padma Bhushan # Arjuna Award # Ati Vishisht Seva Medal # IMF Gold Medal # Punjab Govt's Nishan-e-Khalsa # Delhi Govt's Most Distinguished Citizen of Delhi Award # Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award 2007 in lifetime achievement category and several international recognitions.

1965 Everest expedition

Captain M.S. Kohli is best known as India's first successful leader of the epoch-making Indian Everest Expedition 1965. The achievement electrified the nation. Nine climbers reached the summit, creating a world record that India held for 17 years. Public euphoria reached a crescendo. People danced in the streets. On return of the team from Nepal to India, breaking all protocol, the Prime Minister headed the reception at the airport. In another unprecedented move, an Arjuna Award for the entire team and Padma Bhushan/

Padma Shri Padma Shri ( IAST: ''padma śrī''), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is conf ...

for all eleven team members was immediately announced. His tallest tribute came from none other than the former Prime Minister,

Indira Gandhi Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (; ''née'' Nehru; 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was an Indian politician and a central figure of the Indian National Congress. She was elected as third prime minister of India in 1966 and was al ...

: “''The record of Commander Kohli’s expedition will find special mention in history. It was a masterpiece of planning, organization, teamwork, individual effort and leadership''”. Gandhi also described the 1965 success as one of India's six major achievements after Independence. A full-length film on the expedition with music by Shankar Jaikishan was released all over India and abroad. The story of the spectacular achievement was serialised in several national newspapers and magazines. Kohli, with some members, was felicitated at

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and

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. Tenzing Norgay accompanied Captain Kohli to several countries. The record of landing atop many mountain summits also is held by Captain M.S. Kohli who along with Tenzing Norgay landed atop a dozen mountain tops in Europe piloted by Raymond Lambert in his small Pilatus Porter plane. In India, Chief Ministers of almost all the States invited the team to their capitals and honoured it at State and Civic receptions. On 8 September 1965, Kohli was invited to address Members of both the Houses of the Indian Parliament in the Central Hall. Adventure clubs and Himalayan expeditions multiplied several-fold, triggering a national resurgence in Indian mountaineering.

Early life

Born and brought up at Haripur on the banks of Indus in the

Karakoram The Karakoram is a mountain range in Kashmir region spanning the borders of Pakistan, China, and India, with the northwest extremity of the range extending to Afghanistan and Tajikistan. Most of the Karakoram mountain range falls under the ...

mountains of North West Frontier, Kohli witnessed the massacre of over 2,000 innocent persons during the carnage of the partition of India. Starting with

Saser Kangri Saser Kangri (or Sasir Kangri) is a mountain in India. It is the highest peak in the Saser Muztagh, the easternmost subrange of the Karakoram range. Sasir Kangri is located within Ladakh, the northernmost union territory in India. Saser Kangri ...

(25,170 ft) in 1956, he has been on 20 major Himalayan expeditions which included India's first ascent of

Nanda Kot Nanda Kot ( Kumaoni-नन्दा कोट) is a mountain peak of the Himalaya range located in the Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand state in India. It lies in the Kumaon Himalaya, just outside the ring of peaks enclosing the Nanda ...

and maiden ascent of Annapurna III. He belongs to the exclusive band of three climbers in the world who, in 1962, spent three consecutive nights, two without oxygen, on Everest in raging blizzards at 27,650 feet. During his years with the

, he introduced adventure as part of training. During 15 years with the

, from its inception, he turned the force into a formidable mountaineering organisation. Under the charge of India's legendary police officers, B.N. Mullick and R.N. Kao, he led seven dangerous, challenging and highly sensitive missions of great national importance along with climbers and scientists from the USA. The task involved installing nuclear powered spy listening devices on top of some of the Indian Himalayan peaks to spy on the Chinese missile capabilities. This largest, longest and costliest expedition will form the plot of a Hollywood movie. On joining Air-India in 1971, Kohli conceived and personally promoted ‘Trekking in the Himalayas’ all over the world by visiting over 50 countries and making over 1000 presentations which included world's most popular TV programmes, ‘ To Tell the Truth’ and ‘ David Frost Show’. On 3 December 1978, he flew over the

South Pole The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole, Terrestrial South Pole or 90th Parallel South, is one of the two points where Earth's axis of rotation intersects its surface. It is the southernmost point on Earth and lies antipod ...

. To save the Himalayas from the brink of disaster, he secured the support of Sir Edmund Hillary and other Himalayan legends –

Maurice Herzog Maurice André Raymond Herzog (15 January 191913 December 2012) was a French mountaineer and administrator who was born in Lyon, France. He led the 1950 French Annapurna expedition that first climbed a peak over 8000m, Annapurna, in 1950, and ...

, Sir Chris Bonington, Reinhold Messner and

Junko Tabei was a Japanese mountaineer, author and a teacher. She was the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest and the first woman to ascend the Seven Summits, climbing the highest peak on every continent. Tabei wrote seven books, organized e ...

– to establish the Himalayan Environment Trust on 14 October 1989. During the past two decades the HET helped saving the world heritage for future generations. In India, he also introduced Himalayan tourism, white-water rafting, aero-sports, luxury sea cruises, tourist charters to Goa, international conferences, Himalayan mountaineering and tourism meets and opened

Lakshadweep Lakshadweep (), also known as Laccadives (), is a union territory of India. It is an archipelago of 36 islands in the Arabian sea, located off the Malabar Coast. The name ''Lakshadweep'' means "one lakh islands" in Sanskrit, though the Lac ...

and the Andaman Islands to tourism. His 14-year tenure in the

as Vice-President/President saw many landmark developments. Since his retirement in 1990, declining several lucrative offers, he has been passionately working on all-round development of youth through various adventure and outdoor leadership projects.

Books and Magazines

''Incredible Himalayas'', Indus Publishing (2005)
* ''Mountains of India'', Indus Publishing (2004) * ''The Great Himalayan Climb'', Orient Paperbacks (2003) * ''Spies in the Snow, How CIA and the Indian Intelligence Lost a Nuclear Device in the Himalayas''
''Spies of Anil in the Himalayas: Secret Missions and Perilous Climbs'', University Press of Kansas (2003)
*
The Himalayas: Playground of the Gods: Trekking, Climbing, Adventure (2000) M.S. Kohli

''Mountaineering in India'' (1989)

References

http://captainmskohli.com/about-me.html

External links

Bio details on publisher's website

''The missing radioactive sensor'', Deccan Herald, April 25, 2004

''CIA nuclear device atop Himalayas'', Times of India, June 5, 2003
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kohli, Manmohan Singh Indian mountain climbers 1931 births Living people Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in sports Recipients of the Arjuna Award Kirori Mal College alumni Recipients of the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award Recipients of Indian Mountaineering Foundation's Gold Medal