Malavath Poorna conquers Mt Vinson

Hyderabad: Malavath Poorna, who had conquered Mt Everest five years ago, has now set another record by conquering Mt Vinson Massif, the highest mountain peak (4,987 mts) in the Antarctica continent.

With this, the 18-year-old Poorna has become the first and youngest tribal woman in the world to set foot on six tallest mountain peaks across the six continents.

Poorna, who started her journey from climbing small hills in her tribal village of Pakala, has so far scaled Mt Everest (Asia, 2014), Mt. Kilimanjaro (Africa, 2016), Mt Elbrus (Europe, 2017), Mt. Aconcagua (South America, 2019) Mt Cartsnez (Oceania region, 2019) and Mt Vinson Massif (Antarctica, 2019).

With her dedication and determination, she has proved that marginalised youth specially girls can achieve anything if opportunities were provided to them. Her latest achievement will leave an indelible impression on millions of marginalised children.

Poorna is very close to achieving her goal of scaling the seven tallest summits located in seven continents. Poorna is gearing up to scale Mt Denali (North America's highest mountain peak), the dream of every mountaineer in the world.

Poorna thanked Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao and Minister for Welfare Koppula Eshwar for the encouragement and the support extended to her.

She also expressed her gratitude to the Telangana Social Welfare Residential Educational Institutions Society (TSWREIS) secretary Dr RS Praveen Kumar and her coach Sekhar Babu Bachinepally of Transcend Adventures, Hyderabad, for their unwavering support and encouragement.

Dr Praveen Kumar, secretary, TSWREIS, said, "Poorna's expeditions will remain engraved in golden letters in the annals of the world's mountaineering history. Today, Poorna has become an accomplished world-class mountaineer and pride of Telangana and India."

Poorna accomplished Mt Vinson mission with the help of the Government of Telangana, Transcend Adventures and crowdfunding.

Poorna is currently pursuing an undergraduate course at the Minnesota State University, USA, as a fellow of the Global Undergraduate Exchange Programme, USA.

Poorna's parents work as agricultural labourers in a remote Pakala tribal hamlet of Nizamabad (district) in Telangana.

The sweeping and path-breaking innovative initiatives introduced by secretary Dr Praveen Kumar, Secretary, had a telling effect on Poorna and as well as thousands of poor children.