Bachendri Pal conferred Bharat Gaurav by East Bengal Club

Bachendri Pal, the first Indian woman mountaineer to scale Mount Everest was conferred with Bharat Gaurav, the highest honour of merit of East Bengal Club. The 60-year-old, Pal was honoured at a function held at the Khudiram Indoor hall at East Bengal's to celebrate the 95th foundation day celebrations.

She was given a cheque of 2 lakh rupees.

Other awards given by the club are
• Lifetime Achievement award - former players Amal Dutta and Parimal Dey for their contribution to football
• Player of the Year award - current defender Arnab Mondal

The Club in its annual function also felicitated and honoured to
• East Bengal's cricket team for winning four out of five titles last season
• Kalidas Mukherjee and Gopinath Pyne, match referees
• GC Das, sports journalist
• Nikhil Bhattacharjee photo journalist

About Bachendri Pal
• In 1984, she became the first Indian women to reach the summit of Mt Everest in
• At present she heads the Tata Steel’s Adventure Foundation
• She is an instructor at the National Adventure Foundation
• She was born on 24 May 1954

Awards and accolades conferred on Bachendri are
• In 1984, she got Gold Medal for Excellence in Mountaineering by the Indian Mountaineering Foundation
• In 1984, she also received Padma Shri - the fourth highest civilian award in the Republic of India
• In 1985, she got Gold Medal by the Department of Education, Government of Uttar Pradesh, India
• In 1986, she received Arjuna Award by the Government of India
• In 1990 got listed in Guinness Book of World Records
• In 1994, received National Adventure Award by the Government of India
• In 1995, she received Yash Bharti Award by the Government of Uttar Pradesh, India
• In 1997, she was received an Honorary Doctorate from the Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University (formerly known as Garhwal University)
• In 2013-14, she became the first recipient of Virangana Lakshmibai Rashtriya Samman 2013-14

About Bharat Gaurav Award
The Bharat Gaurav Award was constituted by East Bengal in 2011. First person to be awarded was Leslie Claudius, the legendary hockey player. The other two recipients of the awards are
• Ahmed Khan, Football Olympian
• Arun Ghosh, the Asian Games gold medalist