Joydeep Sircar
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Joydeep Sircar (b. 1947) is a mountain-traveller and pioneer mountain-historian. In 1979 he published his Himalayan Handbook, an index of all the named peaks of 6096 meters (20000 feet) and above in Afghanistan and the Indian subcontinent with chronological entries of expeditions to each peak and references to expedition reports, after a decade of solitary research.This book,introduced by the famous British mountaineer-explorer J. O. M. Roberts, was the first one of its kind and became a basic reference resource for subsequent mountain catalogues.
In 1982 Sircar was the first to suspect and draw public attention to the covert competition between India and Pakistan over the Siachen Glacier in an article in The Telegraph newspaper of Calcutta. Subsequently the full essay titled "Oropolitics" came out in The Alpine Journal, London (1984). India sent troops into Siachen Glacier in the same year.
Sircar surmised the existence of a feasible pass in Himachal Pradesh, India on the Himalayan divide between Kullu and Spiti Districts. He led three expeditions to the high range separating the Upper Parbati valley from the unexplored Debsa Glacier in 1992,1993 and 1995.The Debsa Pass was reached in 1993 and crossed in 1995, and the team descended down the unexplored Debsa Glacier to the Parahio Valley. The pass has become a regular route as it saves two days over the traditional Kullu-Spiti route, the Pin-Parbati Pass.
Sircar has taken part in a number of other mountaineering expeditions, and is a poet, essayist, birdwatcher and conservationist.
[edit] References
- The Alpine Journal, London, 1980
- Sivalaya by Louis Baume
- The Alpine Jounal, London, 1984
- High Asia by Jill Neate
- Backdoor to Spiti: Debsa 1992-1995 by J. Sircar (RGS archives)
- http://www.adventurestats.com/pages/history.htm
- http://expeditionquest.com/expeditionportal/home/index.phtml?Expedition_Id=8599
