Who Is Vishwanath Dokhe? Maharashtra Cop Who Scaled Mt Everest

In a first, a 49-year-old female police officer set a record for ascending Mount Everest, the world’s highest peak. Dwarka Vishwanath Dokhe is the Maharashtra Police Force’s first female officer to accomplish this remarkable achievement. On Wednesday at 4:10 am, she reached the summit and stayed there for 7-8 minutes, singing the national anthem and waving the tricolour and the Maharashtra police flag. The official X handle for the Maharashtra police posted slides of Dokhe’s photos taken while climbing Everest.

The caption said, “No challenge is too big for our Police Inspector Dwarka Vishwanath Dokhe as she ascended the world’s highest mountain, Mount Everest.”

Speaking to the Times of India (TOI), Dokhe stated that her parents had passed away and that her “sole aim in scaling Mount Everest was to pay tribute to them.”

Dokhe, a native of Srirampur in Ahmednagar district, enlisted in the police force through a direct recruiting service in 2006 as a police sub-inspector.

Dokhe has been successfully climbing snow-covered summits since 2016, and she is currently working as a Cybercrime Instructor at the Nashik Police Academy.

She reportedly developed a fascination with climbing Everest in 2022 after she came across a book called ‘Saad Deti Him Shikhare’ and eventually made the Everest climbing her goal.

The Marathi-language daily Sakal reports that on March 24, 2024, she arrived in Kathmandu. The quest began under the direction of Lakpa Sherpa, the head of the Everest climbing company. He stayed with Dokhe till the end of this mission. She began her ascent from Everest Base Camp on May 17. On May 22, they arrived at the peak of Everest.

She held the picture of his parents as a tribute, by the decision she had made. After 54 days of continuous battle, she set a record for conquering Everest.

But this wasn’t her first go at it. Last year, she was forced to return from Base Camp 2 due to failing health. Remaining persistent, she began training to climb the highest peak in the world.

To prepare for the gruelling journey, Dwarka underwent an intense training routine that included carrying over 210 kilogrammes on her back every day, walking on a steeply inclining treadmill and jogging 15 km three days a week.

She also committed to doing full-body exercises and often climbed an eight-story building’s stairs. Even with setbacks brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Dokhe’s resolve never faltered.