The mountaineer changing lives in a hill village

Munsyari in the Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand is the last small town before the Nepal-Tibet border. It is here that Malika Virdi, a well-known mountaineer, social worker and sarpanch till January 2010, has chosen to live amongst the local folk.
It needs courage, character and idealism to forsake urban comfort and move to such a beautiful, but harsh place. Yet coming as an outsider to a remote village, Malika has taken up women's and environmental issues and is working towards bringing a change in the lives of the womenfolk.
Claude Arpi and Abha Tewari discover a lady who left the city for the mountains and is tackling the problems confronting the locals as her own.
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