UP cadre IPS Aparna Kumar to be the first serving officer to reach south pole

A 2002-batch officer of the Uttar Pradesh cadre, Aparna Kumar is now on a South Pole expedition. She will be the first serving officer to finish this daunting challenge. She’s expected to return to India on January 20, said her husband Sanjay Kumar, a bureaucrat.

Mother of two, Aparna has already become the first officer of the All India Services to have successfully scaled Antarctica’s highest peak Mount Vinson Massif in 2016 and then climbed Mount Manaslu in the west-central part of Nepal in 2017.

“Aparna started from Delhi in the wee hours of December 30, 2018 to fly to Puentas Arenas in Chile via Dubai and Santiago for the South Pole Expedition. The 10-member expedition team shall attempt to reach the South Pole after landing in Union glacier base camp in Antarctica on January 3, 2019,” he said.

“Weather permitting, the team is expected to complete the 111 miles expedition braving temperatures of -40 degree Celsius in 12 days (January 3-14). It will take them another 4 to 5 days to reach a dry land,” he said.

On January 17, 2016, when this noted Indian mountaineer scaled Antarctica’s highest peak Mount Vinson Massif by climbing 17,000-feet, she hoisted the tricolour and UP police flag there. The then chief minister Akhilesh Yadav had lauded her effort.

In August 2015, Aparna had scaled Europe’s highest peak Mount Elbrus (18,510 feet) in Russia, following which she underwent a special training to prepare for the Antarctica expedition.

She had received the Rani Laxmi Bai award from former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav in March 2015 after having scaled Mount Aconcagua, the highest peak in South America. Earlier, she had successfully scaled Carstensz Pyramid in Indonesia and Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.

A graduate of the National Law College in Bengaluru, Aparna was on an expedition to scale the Mount Everest in April 2015 when the earthquake hit Nepal. She later scaled the Mt Everest in May 2016 and became the first lady IPS officer to win the accolade.

First Published: Jan 03, 2019 12:49 IST