9-Year-Old Girl from Andhra Pradesh Becomes Asia’s Youngest to Conquer Mount Kilimanjaro

The girl, Kadapala Rithvika Sri, who hails from Anantapur’s M Agraharam village in Tadimarri mandal, climbed to Gilman's Point at 5,681 metres above sea level with her father and guide.

New Delhi: A nine-year-old girl from Andhra Pradesh has conquered Africa’s highest peak Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and managed to become the youngest girl from Asia and the world’s second youngest to scale the peak. The girl, Kadapala Rithvika Sri, who hails from Anantapur’s M Agraharam village in Tadimarri mandal, climbed to Gilman’s Point at 5,681 metres above sea level with her father and guide. Her father, Kadapala Sankar is reportedly a cricket coach and sports coordinator in the Special Olympics Bharat wing of Rural Development Trust, Anantapur.

Rithvika is a student of Class 2 of St Vincent De Paul English Medium School of Anantapur. And as per reports, she took Level 1 training in mountaineering at Rock Climbing School at Bhongir in Telangana and Level 2 training at Ladakh. “Rithvika Sri took part in the mountaineering expedition with enthusiasm and she could make it in her first attempt,’’ said her father.

Her father Sankar had scaled the African peak earlier last year on January 26 and wanted his daughter to do the same. Hence, he had approached the District Collector Gandham Chandrudu seeking financial help for the expedition. Upon his request, an amount of Rs 2.98 lakh was released from the SC Corporation funds.

After Rithvika Sri completed her mountaineering feat, the collector congratulated her and said he had encouraged the girl as she has talent and commitment.