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New Delhi: A Maharashtrian mountaineer is quietly riding hope throughout India through his powerful movement, Shakti Sankalp Safar. This journey is not only about cycling long distances but is a mission of fitness, discipline, and nature, aimed at saving Indian youth from addiction and giving them a strong reason to believe in themselves once again.
For Subodh Shakti Sankalp Safar is not just a campaign but a personal promise…
After witnessing the damage caused by addiction and losing close friends he chose action over words…
Through this movement, he uses his own strength as a mountaineer and endurance cyclist to reach young people across India. Every kilometre he rides, every student he meets, and every tree he plants is driven by his belief that fitness, discipline, and connection with nature can pull youth away from addiction and give them a second chance at life.
Subodh Gangurde is born in a little town called Roha, Raigad district in Maharashtra and is surrounded by green cover and hills. He was brought up near nature and this influenced his thoughts. He was taught by mountains, forests, and open spaces. He was taught a great point at a very tender age and that is, nature is the greatest guide and the truest mentor one can have.
Subodh was a high-altitude tourist guide in various locations such as Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand before he embarked on his present expedition. A mountaineer having years to know how the human body and mind respond in severe conditions. His life however took a new twist when he lost his close friends to addiction and bad habits. He was deeply impressed by seeing families fall apart because of substance abuse.
The agony gradually became meaning.
Subodh began a vast national tour, titled Shakti Sankalp Safar, on 19 June 2024, under the Oxyhunger Foundation, in which he is the Managing Trustee. The vision is very basic but effective, which is to establish a Fit India, a Green India and a Drug-Free India that are headed by vigorous and conscious youth.
Within this mission, Subodh is going to cycle 1,000,000 kilometres across 28 states of India, meet students, plant one lakh trees, and then in 2027, he is going to carry India message of fitness and responsibility to Mount Everest.
It is not the length of the journey but the manner in which he goes about it that makes his journey special.
Subodh rides in single cycles, and he encounters nature as it is. He started his ride in Umling La in Ladakh which is one of the highest motorable roads in the world at about 19,024 feet. The temperature was then down to about -16-17 degrees Celsius and the oxygen content was so low that even vehicle engines find it difficult in such temperatures. Starting with that freezing point, his adventure subsequently led him to the blazing heat of Phalodi, Rajasthan where heat went as high as 55 degrees Celsius. He rode during the monsoon rains in Madhya Pradesh, the coastal headwinds in Gujarat and the shifting climatic conditions in different states.
The conditions were a test to the body and mind in various ways.
But Subodh is sure that problems are not difficulties, rather they are lessons. In his opinion biking in the stiff head-winds or struggling in other extreme weather conditions, leads to patience, regular exercise and mental toughness the same qualities required to combat addiction and create a healthy life.
In the course of his trip, Subodh offers people to go cycling with him, covering 5 km, 10 km or 21 km. It is neither about fastness nor about records. It is on unity – to display the fact that people are united in terms of fitness and clean lifestyle. In the process, he holds fitness and awareness programs in schools, colleges, and communities, speaking freely on the topics of addiction, mobile and gaming dependence, and poor lifestyle habits.
He is convinced that addiction is not drug or alcohol dependent. The young minds can be weakened slowly even through mobile phones, online games, and unhealthy habits. He has had a chance to meet teenagers in de-addiction centres that lost their future before they had even begun. These meetings gave him the more determination to do and not to talk.
Subodh does not gauge success in terms of fame and social media followers. To him, he sees the greatest reward in the two students out of a thousand that will think differently after encountering him. According to him, when he does not have one day of sweating or physically straining, he feels like he has wasted the day.
His work has begun to be recognized. His plantation and awareness missions in various locations have been assisted by government departments such as the Forest Department, Police, Indian Army and Air Force. Other national leaders and institutions have supported the move, considering it as a grassroots movement that is in line with the vision Viksit Bharat 2047.
Prior to this mission, in 2022, Subodh made this world record by being the youngest Indian to climb 371 mountains in 365 days in the Western Ghats. But he does not talk much about records. He likes discussing the discipline, long-term vision and everyday consistency, which is overlooked by many people and on which the success relies.
Moving forward, Subodh does not restrict himself to a single objective. He regards Shakti Sankalp Safar as a life long project. Riding through India is not the limit. Achieving Everest will open up the open world but what he wants is to make the victims of addiction into sportspersons so that they have a second opportunity of life through fitness.
Subodh constantly says, I am nothing more than a medium. This is the journey directed by some higher power and nature.
Starting in a small town of Raigad and leading to the dream of Everest, Subodh Gangurde is a man that does not require any noise to make a change but only courage, clarity and consistency. His cycle is going forward and he is carrying with him a message that the youth in India today have never never needed more than ever:
“Your life is not over. You can always restart.” – Subodh Gangurde
English (US) ·