The inspiring story of the Indian teens who conquered Everest

It all started with a senior district official, Ashutosh Salil, who floated the idea of sending tribal children for an Everest expedition.

Owing to expenses involved, Salil convinced the Maharashtra government to earmark Rs. 4 cr ($570,560) for the mission.

47 children from the largely tribal district of Chandrapur, Maharashtra, were shortlisted, but only 10 made it through the 10 months of gruelling training.

The selected students were made to go through intensive training.

First, they had to learn rock-climbing in the hilly district of Bhongir in Telangana.

Then, they were trained at the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute in Darjeeling, before being sent to Ladakh to get accustomed to high altitudes.

At the end of it all, only 10 students were left standing for the expedition.

Veteran mountaineers Avinash Deoskar and his wife Bimla Negi trained the students for the expedition.

Deoskar told BBC that the hardest part of training the students was keeping them well-fed and rested. The students largely survived on dry fruits as their families could barely afford meat or milk.

Neither had the students heard of Mount Everest before they were picked for the expedition.

Then began the expedition.

Like most aspiring Everest climbers, the team of 10 youths attempted the feat from the Nepalese side.

However, the journey was full of hurdles.

Four of the 10 had to abandon the expedition after they fell ill at different points of their journey.

Another, Indu Kannake, was also forced to come back owing to her sherpa having to leave.

However, despite seemingly impossible odds, five - Manisha, Umakant Madavi, Parmesh Aale, Vikas Soyam and Kavidas Katmode - succeeded.

Among them, Vikas had to climb 21,000 feet twice after his friend fell ill and he had to escort him down the mountain. Determined not to give up, Vikas then climbed all the way back up again.

It wasn't easy for the others either.

One of them, Manisha, had a trying moment when she caught the ghastly sight of a dead body near the summit.

She recounted her legs trembling, but said that instructions from her sherpa inspired her to carry on. She reached the summit just two hours after the ordeal.

But, it all ended well.

While the five who managed to reach the summit were given Rs. 25 lakh each, the other five received Rs. 10 lakh each.

Talking about their plans, Kavidas and Parmesh said they'd use the money to improve farms back at home, while Manisha plans to go to college.

However, given the chance, they all said that they'd scale a mountain again.