She is the youngest woman to scale Everest. She attended a prestigious mountaineering Institute in Darjeeling for training and went on a training expedition to Indo-China border prior to tackling Everest. Purna was born at Pakala village, Nizamabad district of Telangana state of India.
She belongs to a tribal family, and her parents are farm laborers. She joined Telangana Social Welfare Residential Educational Institutions Society for her education, where her talent was spotted by the secretary of the Society Dr. R. S. Praveen Kumar.