Loading…
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh flagged off the National Cadet Corps' all-India girls high-altitude trek 'Aparajita - Parang La 2026' in New Delhi on 18 August 2026.
Twenty-eight girl cadets, led by three women officers of the Army, Navy and Air Force, will cover about 250 km in 30 days across the Parang La pass (5,578 m / 18,300 ft), which links Himachal Pradesh's Spiti Valley with Ladakh's Changthang region.
The route runs Kibber - Dumla - Thaltak - Bongrojen - Parang La - Dak Karzong - Norbu Sumdo - Kiangdom - Korzok, crossing high-altitude desert, glaciers and river valleys; the team was picked on merit after an acclimatisation trek in the Bhaba-Pin Valley sector.
Tri-service youth organisation that trains school and college cadets in military drill, adventure and social service; described by the government as the world's largest uniformed youth organisation, with an enrolled strength of over 13 lakh cadets. Raised on 15 July 1948; Girls Division raised in July 1949; Air Wing raised on 1 April 1950; Naval Wing raised in July 1952. Motto 'Unity and Discipline', adopted on 23 December 1957. Organised into 17 Directorates. NCC Day is observed on the fourth Sunday of November.
Parent ministry of the NCC; the Raksha Mantri (Defence Minister) flagged off this expedition. The NCC draws its officers and training support from the Army, Navy and Air Force.
The statute that constitutes the NCC. The Corps came into existence on 15 July 1948 under this Act, and the National Cadet Corps Rules, 1948 were framed under it. The NCC is therefore a statutory body, not merely an executive scheme - a distinction exams test.
The law under which the Changthang Cold Desert Wildlife Sanctuary (notified 1987) and, in Himachal Pradesh, the Kibber Wildlife Sanctuary (1999) and Pin Valley National Park (1987) on this route's approaches are declared and managed.
The treaty under which Tso Moriri - the lake beside Korzok, where this trek ends - was designated a Wetland of International Importance on 19 August 2002. Himachal Pradesh's own Ramsar sites are Pong Dam Lake (19 August 2002), Chandertal and Renuka (both 8 November 2005).
Parang La (5,578 m) is the traditional crossing between the Spiti Valley in Himachal Pradesh's Lahaul and Spiti district (sub-divisional headquarters Kaza) and the Rupshu-Changthang plateau of Ladakh's Leh district. The trek begins at Kibber, a Spiti village inside the Kibber Wildlife Sanctuary (notified 1999, about 2,220 sq km), and ends at Korzok on the shore of Tso Moriri. Changthang is the western extension of the Tibetan Plateau, a cold desert where the lowest ground is already above 4,200 m. The Pare Chu river rises near Parang La, flows through Ladakh and Tibet, re-enters Himachal Pradesh and joins the Spiti river near Sumdo; the Spiti in turn joins the Sutlej at Khab in Kinnaur - which is why a river rising in Himachal ends up in the Sutlej only after a loop through Tibet.
Spiti and Changthang lie north of the Great Himalayan range, which intercepts the summer monsoon. What reaches them is air already stripped of moisture, so annual precipitation is very low and falls mostly as snow, while altitude keeps temperatures near or below freezing for much of the year. The result is a desert defined by cold and aridity rather than heat: sparse cushion vegetation, glacial melt as the main water source, and specialist fauna - snow leopard, kiang (Tibetan wild ass), bharal, Himalayan ibex, Tibetan argali and the black-necked crane. India's cold deserts are concentrated in Ladakh and the Lahaul-Spiti belt.
Simple Analogy: The Himalaya works like a wall with a wrung-out sponge on the far side - the rain is squeezed out on the southern slopes, and only the dry air makes it over the top.
Protect the high-altitude cold-desert ecosystem of the Changthang plateau in Leh district, notified in 1987 over roughly 4,000 sq km - among the largest protected areas in the country.
Key: Encloses the high-altitude lakes Tso Moriri, Tso Kar and Pangong Tso and the village of Korzok; habitat of the snow leopard, kiang, Tibetan argali and the black-necked crane.
Conserve a high-altitude Trans-Himalayan lake of international importance for migratory and breeding waterbirds.
Key: Designated under the Ramsar Convention on 19 August 2002 over about 12,000 hectares; lies at roughly 4,500 m on the Changthang plateau with Korzok village on its shore; a breeding site in India for the bar-headed goose and the black-necked crane.
Protect cold-desert habitat in the Spiti Valley of Lahaul and Spiti district; the trek's starting village, Kibber, lies within it.
Key: Notified in 1999, about 2,220 sq km; snow-leopard country, and a well-known site for bharal (blue sheep) and ibex.
Conserve the cold-desert flora and fauna of the Pin Valley; the only national park in Lahaul and Spiti district.
Key: Established in 1987, about 675 sq km. The expedition's acclimatisation phase used the adjoining Bhaba-Pin Valley sector.
Landscape-level conservation across the Spiti Wildlife Division and adjoining Lahaul areas, integrating Pin Valley National Park, Kibber Wildlife Sanctuary and the Chandratal wetland.
Key: Notified by India in 2009; spans about 7,770 sq km at altitudes of 3,300-6,600 m. Added to UNESCO's World Network of Biosphere Reserves on 27 September 2025 at the 5th World Congress of Biosphere Reserves in Hangzhou, China, becoming India's 13th UNESCO biosphere reserve and its first high-altitude cold desert one.
Parang La joins the set of passes examiners pair with their states: Shipki La and Rohtang in Himachal Pradesh, Kunzum La linking Kullu-Lahaul with Spiti, Baralacha La on the Manali-Leh road, and Khardung La and Chang La in Ladakh. What is tested is the pass and the two valleys it links, not just the pass and its state.
The Pare Chu rises near Parang La, loops through Ladakh and Tibet and re-enters India to join the Spiti, which meets the Sutlej at Khab. The Sutlej itself rises in Tibet near Lake Rakshastal - one reason trans-boundary flow data on the Sutlej basin is a recurring India-China issue.
The Cold Desert Biosphere Reserve's 2025 entry into UNESCO's World Network makes the Spiti landscape a live current-affairs topic in its own right, and links this geography to the wider list of India's UNESCO-listed biosphere reserves.
An all-girls NCC expedition led by women officers of all three Services sits alongside the wider policy line - Sainik Schools opened to girls, women cadets at the National Defence Academy since 2022, and permanent commission for women officers - as material for questions on women's participation in defence.
GS Paper 1 > Indian Geography > Physical features, Himalayan passes and cold deserts; GS Paper 3 > Environment > Protected areas and Ramsar wetlands
General Awareness > Static GK: passes, rivers, sanctuaries, defence organisations
CDS/NDA General Knowledge > NCC, defence organisations and Indian geography
Himalayan passes and Ramsar wetlands are asked most years in Prelims and repeatedly in SSC; the NCC's founding facts are standard CDS/NDA and SSC static GK.
A 5,578 m pass linking the Spiti Valley of Himachal Pradesh with the Changthang region of Ladakh.
The western extension of the Tibetan Plateau in eastern Ladakh; a high-altitude cold desert holding Tso Moriri, Tso Kar and Pangong Tso.
A roughly 150-km river rising near Parang La that flows through Ladakh and Tibet before rejoining the Spiti river, and so the Sutlej.
The Tibetan wild ass, the signature large mammal of the Changthang cold desert.
Act XXXI of 1948, under which the National Cadet Corps was raised on 15 July 1948 as a statutory tri-service youth organisation under the Ministry of Defence.