Two ITBP officials receive Tenzing Norgay national award from President

Two Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) officials were among those awarded prestigious Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award by President Ram Nath Kovind at Rashtrapati Bhawan on the occasion of National Sports Day on Thursday.

The awarded officials include Aparna Kumar, the first woman IPS officer to have successfully scaled the South Pole. Subedar Major Wangchuk Sherpa was the other awardee.

According to an official statement, Kumar had recently completed the prestigious seven summits' challenge by scaling all seven top peaks of the seven continents. She is the first civil servant and ITBP officer to have completed the seven summit challenge.

Wangchuk Sherpa has successfully scaled the highest peak of the world, the Mount Everest three times in 1992, 1996 and 2006. He has successfully scaled more than 20 national and international peaks in his service career, the release added.

ITBP has been the pioneer in the adventure sports and has a distinct edge in terms of the number of successful mountaineering expeditions. The Force has completed record of 213 mountaineering expeditions since its inception in 1962.