State Mountaineering Reward Scheme

What is the State Mountaineering Reward Scheme?

State Mountaineering Reward Scheme is an annual award of the Sports, Youth and Cultural Activities Department, Government of Gujarat. According to the department's scheme page, the award exists to encourage and inspire the youth of Gujarat towards adventurous and risk-bearing activities such as summiting, mountaineering and rock climbing.

The award consists of Rs 25,000 in cash, a memento and a certificate, given each year. It is a recognition award rather than a grant: the money is paid after the climb has been achieved and certified, not in advance to fund an expedition.

Gujarat has a small but steady mountaineering community, and the state has run this recognition alongside its adventure-sports and youth-services activity for several years. The governing order is government resolution YSP/102017/271/B, published on the department's website, and the full conditions of the award are set out in that resolution.

Who is eligible for the State Mountaineering Reward Scheme?

You can be considered if:

• You are a native of Gujarat and can produce a native or domicile certificate as proof.
• You have achieved one successful ascent of a peak of 7,000 metres or more, or two successful ascents of peaks above 6,000 metres.
• Your ascents are certified by the Indian Mountaineering Foundation, the national body that records and validates expeditions in India.
• You have no criminal record, evidenced by a police clearance certificate.

You cannot apply if:

• You are not a native of Gujarat, however strong your climbing record.
• You have already received this award once. The scheme is expressly a one-time recognition and repeat awards are not made.
• Your ascents are not certified by the Indian Mountaineering Foundation. Personal photographs, team logs or trekking-agency certificates are not a substitute for IMF certification.
• You have a criminal record disclosed on the police certificate.
• Your achievement is in trekking or high-altitude walking below the qualifying heights. Peaks below 6,000 metres do not count towards the threshold at all.

A posthumous award is specifically permitted. Where a mountaineer who met the criteria has died, the legal heirs may apply and receive the award on the climber's behalf, supported by a legal heirship certificate.

What documents are required?

How to apply for the State Mountaineering Reward Scheme

1. Download the prescribed application form from the scheme page at sycd.gujarat.gov.in. The form is a small PDF, about 68 KB, linked from the State Mountaineering Reward Scheme page.
2. Obtain your Indian Mountaineering Foundation certificate for each qualifying ascent. Without it the file cannot be assessed, since the department relies on IMF certification to verify the peak and its height.
3. Collect the native certificate and police clearance certificate. Apply for the police certificate early; it is the document that most often delays a file.
4. Fill the form completely and legibly, including a clear postal address, mobile number and email. The department states that incomplete or unclear applications are rejected, so leave no field blank.
5. Prepare two identical sets. The form must be submitted in duplicate with the supporting documents attached to each copy.
6. Submit the application to the Sports, Youth and Cultural Activities Department, Government of Gujarat, and obtain a receipt or inward number for your records.
7. Wait for the state-level selection committee to consider the applications received for the year and to announce the awardee.

Who selects the awardee?

A state-level selection committee examines all applications. According to the department, the committee is chaired by the Secretary of the Sports, Youth and Cultural Activities Department and includes representatives of the youth services wing, mountaineering institutes and the cultural activities wing. The committee's decision covers both the eligibility check against the height criteria and the comparative merit of the achievements presented in that year.

Because the award is annual and singular in character, applying does not guarantee selection even where the height criteria are met. A file that clearly documents the difficulty, season, route and self-sufficiency of the expedition gives the committee more to weigh than a bare certificate.

Why applications get rejected

• No IMF certificate, or a certificate that does not state the peak height.
• Height threshold not met. A single 6,500-metre peak, for example, satisfies neither the 7,000-metre single-ascent route nor the two-peak route.
• Native certificate missing, so Gujarat nativity is unproven.
• Police clearance certificate not enclosed.
• Form submitted in a single copy rather than in duplicate.
• Incomplete or illegible form, or missing contact details — the department names this explicitly as a ground for rejection.
• Applicant already awarded under the scheme in an earlier year.

Each of these is curable before submission, which is the practical point: this is a scheme where the paperwork, not the climbing, is what usually fails.

Help and grievance redressal

• Sports, Youth and Cultural Activities Department, Government of Gujarat: scheme information and forms at sycd.gujarat.gov.in.
• Sports Authority of Gujarat and the district youth services officer can guide applicants on submission and on the status of the year's selection.
• Governing order: government resolution YSP/102017/271/B, available on the departmental website: ask for it if any condition is disputed.

Applying for the State Mountaineering Reward Scheme is free. No fee is payable to any person or agency for submitting the form or for "processing" the award.