Kathmandu, July 15 (IANS) Indians are the third highest conqueror of Mt Everest this season and the second regarding the lesser Himalayan peaks, a survey

revealed here Friday.

The survey released by Kathmandu-based trekking agency Asian Trekking said from 1953 - when New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa summited the world's highest peak for the first time - to spring 2011, 3,448 climbers had scaled the 8,848m peak.

This year alone, 375 reached the summit from Nepal while another 131 climbers followed from the Tibet side.

While Nepalis retained their dominance on Mt Everest, the survey found that after them, Americans, British and Indians had the highest number of summiteers on Everest. Besides 39 Americans and 27 Britons, 19 climbers from India followed in Hillary and Tenzing's footsteps.

The record was even better vis-a-vis other Himalayan peaks where India sent the second highest number of summiters - 48 - after the US with 129.

Indian climbers also dominated the list of records. While this spring's annals were dominated by Nepal's Apa Sherpa, who summited Mt Everest a record 21 times, the husband and wife duo from Haryana, Vikash and Sushma Kaushik, in their early 30s, became the youngest couple in the world to reach the top of the world.

A 32-year-old housewife from Arunachal Pradesh, Anshu Jamsenpa, became the first Indian to summit Mt Everest twice in one climbing season while Tine Mena, also from the same state, became the first woman from North-East India to become an Everest hero.

Flight-Lieutenant Nivedita Chaudhary became the first Indian Air Force woman officer to conquer Mt Everest while Premlata Agrawal from Jharkhand was the oldest Indian woman to achieve the feat at the age of 48.

Noida schoolboy Arjun Vajpai, who last year made the record of being the youngest Indian to summit Mt Everest at 17 years 11 months, this year became the youngest climber to conquer Mt Lhotse, the fourth highest peak in the world.

Arjun's victory last year paved the way for new climbers this season with corporate sponsors, once branded as not looking beyond cricket, began to come forward to fund Everest expeditions.

Some Indian summiters were also supported partly by their state governments or politicians.

In Jamsenpa's case, her sponsorship was taken up at the highest level, by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who this month reportedly instructed his media adviser Harish Khare to ready a grant from the Prime Minister's Relief Fund.