Jyoti Raj
Indian free solo climber
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Jyoti Raj is an Indian free solo climber from Chitradurga, Karnataka.[1]
Known as "Kothi Raju" or "Spiderman of Karnataka", Raj is famous for scaling the Chitradurga Fort without safety harnesses.[2] He does not climb for sports, but to entertain the visitors to the fort.[3][4][5]
He is also the only person to have scaled Karnataka's highest waterfall, the 830-foot Jog falls, climbing against the flow.[6] On 13 September 2013, he free soloed the clock tower at Moorusavir Math in Hubli in just over 15 minutes. He did not use any harness, but used chalk for grip.[7]
He made his debut as an actor in Sandalwood with the 2014 film Jyothi aliyas Kothiraja.[8]
He has been called upon numerous times to rescue or retrieve the bodies of people who have fallen down Jog Falls, and on a rescue operation in 2018 he got stuck in a gorge overnight.[9]
