Wow! Ravindra Kumar becomes the first IAS officer to scale Mt Everest

A YOUNG Sikkim cadre IAS officer, Ravindra Kumar has created history by scaling the Mt Everest, the highest peak in the world. The 2011 batch officer, currently an assistant collector and executive magistrate of East district of Gangtok, achieved this rare feat on May 19, scripting a history by becoming the first IAS officer to conquer Mt Everest. According to local media reports…
Kumar reached the base camp of Mt Everest on April 17 after a week-long journey on foot from a place called Lukla in Nepal. He then had a three-week-long acclimatization at the base camp before beginning his final expedition on May 15. He reached the highest peak four days later on Sunday morning.
It was the First Summit Agency which guided Kumar to undertake the expedition. The agency’s director Mingma Sherpa was the first to inform district collector of East Sikkim about Kumar’s achievement.
A graduate in Nautical science from TS Chanakya University of Mumbai, Kumar took up a job in shipping industry before getting into IAS. During that phase, he had travelled across oceans and nurtured a dream to undertake a journey from the deepest sea to the highest mountain. He then completed advance mountaineering courses from Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, Darjeeling as a part of undertaking his dream expedition. Kumar belongs to Begusarai district of Bihar.
But Kumar’s attempt to scale the highest peak in the world faced a roadblock when a controversy arose over his selection as a member of Sikkim’s state-sponsored Mt Everest Expedition. Kumar opted out of the team and took a personal loan instead, but he decided to chase his dream. And finally, he did it. Kumar’s determination is a lesson for many budding civil servants to scale greater heights in their careers.