They save life for charity; in the last 10 years they have carried out over 300 rescue operation around Lonavala and Khandala valley, saved hundreds of lives, they are God sent for the people who get stuck in Valley, Lake & dam due to an accident or natural disaster. They also rescue reptiles (catch snakes, rescue them and then send them back to deep forest). They do it out of passion and interest, free of cost, a purely for charity. The members of Shivadurga Mitra adventure club are real life heroes. This inside story is D2I’s salute to them, their act of bravery and unique charity of saving life.
Shivadurga Mitra adventure club was founded in the year 1980 by Mr. Sunil Gaikwad; with the vision and aim of promoting trekking, rappelling and other adventure sports for people in Lonavala. From the very beginning the club used to teach adventure sports to the school children at no cost and they are still doing so in schools. In mid 90s, the next generation of the club started participating actively in various other activities. And over the time activity list of Shivadurga club grew from Trekking, repelling, rock climbing, valley crossing etc. to survival camping, archery, shooting to special & customised training programs for corporate and government agencies.
Young and energetic members like Sunil Gaikwad and Ashok mate, completed basic courses from NIM, further added new horizon to this club.
In 2000 out of interest and passion, they started rescuing the accident victims in and around Lonavala- Khandala valley. On an average every year they do around 30-35 rescue operations in dense forest, to deep valley and under water (Dam & Lakes).
The valley in the Lonavala-Khandala is around 3000 feet deep and quite accident prone especially in the rainy season. After an accident if someone gets stuck in the valley then the rescue team either comes from Mumbai or Pune; the major damages occurs prior to their arrival, immediate help is needed in most of the accidents. Sunil, Ashok and few more like minded youngsters decided to start rescuing operation by then. With very little resource and equipment, in the year 2000 they started rescuing the accident victims in and around Lonavala Ghat. They do not charge anything for it, they even bought all the equipments and gears required for such rescue operations themselves. All the earnings of Shivdurga Mitra Adventure Club are being spent for these purposes, they even put their saving. It was shear passion and feeling to help, keeps them going. By 2005 Shivdurga Mitra became a reliable and famous entity. Even the Police started to contact them for rescue operations. They became top choice for cops and life saver for victims. On an average every year they carry out around 30-35 rescue operation.
After 2005, they started to maintain the record of operations and related activity. Now they are a 200 member strong team. The rescue horizon too expands from valley to lakes and dams. From dense forest, to deep valley to under water, they started rescuing everywhere. It was not only geographical horizon of Shivdurga which was expanding, they also started rescuing snakes.
They catch snakes, rescue them from people and later let them free into the deep forest. To promote it, they have started courses on identifying snake, their poisonous characteristic and how to catch them, and how to survive if a poisonous snake bites you, etc.
They also train the cadets of Force One, for repelling, valley crossing and rock climbing. On 26th November 2009, on the mark on one year of terror attack on Mumbai, the cadets of Force One demonstrated their preparation to fight terror. An important portion of this drill was trained by Shivadurga club.
From members count to rescue operations to activities and their passion to their popularity, everything is growing up. The only thing which is still in bad shape, are their finances. Members are running this noble organisation on their own; its parent club which organises various adventure sports too is less of a business establishment and more of a charitable institution. Their most of programs are to promote the activity and free training for locals and the underprivileged; very few camps and activities earn them the much needed money. Time to time they get support from local business houses, but still they are way behind what they should be in terms of the finances.
Finance has never been their vision, idea and aim, and they continue rescuing people while betting on their own life out of passion and will. They not only conduct adventure games, and rescue work, they are also promoting sports and culture among youth in a big way. Shivadurga Mitra Mandal is in true sense serving the society.
Doors2India salute the brave hearts of Maharashtra.
“This blog was originally published in blog.d2i.in as inside story of Shivadurga mitra mandal, Lonavala; republishing here with permission from D2i team”
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