Mountaineer Kalpana’s body reaches Bhubaneswar

Bhubaneswar: The body of Odia mountaineer Kalpana Dash recovered from the Everest balcony reached here this morning.

The body will be kept at Kalinga Stadium for around one hour for the public to pay last respect.

Yesterday, the mortal remains of Kalpana had arrived in New Delhi following post-mortem at Kathmandu.

Her body was supposed to reach Bhubaneswar yesterday night but the flight carrying her body from Kathmandu got delayed and reached Delhi airport too late. “The arrival rescheduled due to departure of Delhi-Bhubaneswar flight following delay in arrival of body from Kathmandu,” an official of the state’s Sports Department said.

According to her family sources, the body was flown to Delhi from Kathmandu following completion of formalities at the base camp, Lukla.

The body was handed over to a three-member team from Odisha, which includes Kalpana’s brother Pradip Dash on Friday night after completion of all paper works following post-mortem at a hospital in Kathmandu.

The Odisha government is bearing the entire expenses that are to be incurred for bringing Kalpana’s body back to the state.

Notably, Kalpana, the first Odia to climb Mount Everest, died on May 23 while descending from the summit after successfully scaling Mount Everest for the second time. Her body was recovered on May 28 and was transported to Kathmandu May on 31.