ITBP officer gets Tenzing Norgay award from President

President Pranab Mukherjee today awarded the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure award to ace mountaineer and senior ITBP officer Harbhajan Singh.
Mukherjee presented the decoration to the officer during the presentation of the national sports and adventure awards at an event held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan here.
Singh, an Inspector General-rank officer of the Sino-India border guarding force, is a veteran of three successful expeditions to the world's tallest summit Mount Everest and has led 16 other expeditions to various Indian peaks.
The highly decorated officer, already decorated with the Padma Shri, joined the mountain-trained force in 1980 and apart from looking after the Operations charge of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) at its headquarters here, he also officiates as an advisor to the force Director General for "organising, monitoring and guiding various adventure activities in the force."

"On many occasions, risking his life and abandoning successful climbs, Singh carried out rescue operations, saving precious lives of fellow climbers and team members," an ITBP statement said.
The ITBP was raised in the aftermath of the 1962 Chinese aggression and the 80,000-personnel force guards the 3,488-km frontier with China apart from rendering a variety of duties in the internal security domain.