- Geeta Samota, who is a sub-inspector with CISF, is the first CISF official to climb Mount Everest, the planet's tallest point at 8,849 meters
- Her achievement is the realization of her 'Seven Summits' aspiration, which she started in 2019
CISF Sub-Inspector Geeta Samota has made history by becoming the first CISF official to scale Mount Everest, the world's tallest mountain standing at 8,849 meters. This remarkable feat is the crowning glory of her ambitious 'Seven Summits' journey, which began in 2019 when she became the first woman from any Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) to scale Mount Satopanth in Uttarakhand.
Even the challenges that were introduced by the COVID-19 pandemic would not deter her from her resolve. Between 2021 and early 2022, she climbed four additional summits in just six months and 27 days — among them Mount Kosciuszko in Australia (2,228 m), Mount Elbrus in Russia (5,642 m), and Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania (5,895 m). On Monday, she ascended to the summit of Everest, achieving the toughest goal of her professional life as a mountaineer — popularly referred to as standing on top of the "roof of the world."
At that point in time, CISF did not have a mountaineering unit. Capitalizing on the opportunity, Geeta was the only woman in her 2015 batch at the ITBP Mountaineering Institute in Auli, starting out in a male-dominated domain. Her work has not passed without recognition. In 2023, she received the International Women's Day Award by Delhi Commission for Women and the 'Giving Wings to Dreams Award' by the Ministry of Civil Aviation.
CISF has been one of the main pillars of support in all her mountaineering endeavors, both financially and logistically. On Tuesday, CISF Director General hailed Geeta's achievement as that of a symbol of inspiration for India's youth and source of immense pride for the CAPF community. In the future, CISF laid out plans to form a complete mountaineering team to climb Mount Everest in 2026, spurred on by Geeta's pioneering achievement.
