BHOPAL: Five-year- old girl from Betul district in Madhya Pradesh, Prisha Lokesh Nikajoo, has become the youngest to reach the base camp of world's highest mountain peak Mount Everest.Prisha reached the base camp at an altitude of 5364 m (17598 feet) along with her father Lokesh Nikajoo who is a mountaineer.

She covered 130 km in 12 days to achieve the feat.

Lokesh is an IT engineer posted in Mumbai.

He said that Prisha landed in Lukla (Nepal) and started the trek on May 24 with him and reached the Everest base camp on June 1, 2023 by proudly holding the Indian Flag and later returned to Lukla (Nepal) on June 4, 2023."It was an extremely difficult and high-altitude trek where many trekkers experience difficulty in breathing, headache and acute mountain sickness, but Prisha managed the difficulties well," said Lokesh.Prisha's father Lokesh and mother, Seema Lokesh Nikajoo, trained her for this difficult high-altitude trek and before heading to this trek she used to walk 5- 6 miles daily along with aerobics, climbing stairs of her apartment and climbing wall at her garden area.Lokesh said that Prisha scaled Maharashtra's highest peak Kalsubai at the age of three years.

"I have three daughters and Prisha has shown a keen interest in mountaineering.

As I am a mountaineer she learned important tips from me," he said.

Lokesh is an alumnus of Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Mountaineering and Allied Sports, Manali.Prisha's grandfather TR Nikajoo is a retired government teacher who hails from Prabhat Pattan, Betul district in Madhya Pradesh.

Prisha Nikajoo is presently staying and studying at Thane, Mumbai.

She started trekking at the age of 2.5 yr and climbed many forts of Maharashtra like Singhgad, Lohgad, Visapur, Kalsubai and others.Lokesh said that Priha will try to summit other peaks of height around 5000 m to 6000m in other parts of the world.

"Prisha has a dream to climb many more peaks in the Himalaya, Dhaulagiri region and other parts of the world," said Lokesh.