The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports (MYAS) announced four recipients of the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Awards (TNNAA) for 2024 on 2 September 2026, honouring India’s highest adventure honour across Land Adventure, Water Adventure and Lifetime Achievement categories. Mountaineers Baljeet Kaur and Skalzang Rigzin were selected for Land Adventure, para swimmer Rimo Saha for Water Adventure, and Shiv Prasad Chamoli for Lifetime Achievement. No award was announced in the Air Adventure category this year, and each winner will receive a bronze statuette, a certificate and ₹15 lakh.
What Is the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award?
The Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award (TNNAA) is the highest national recognition for adventure sports in India. It is conferred annually by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports (MYAS), the nodal ministry for sports and youth development headquartered in New Delhi. The award recognises outstanding achievement in adventure activities on land, sea and air, and aims to promote endurance, courage, risk taking, teamwork, discipline and quick, effective decision making in challenging situations.
The award was originally instituted in 1993 as the National Adventure Awards and the first awards were given for the year 1994. In 2003, on the 50th anniversary of the first ascent of Mount Everest, the awards were renamed after Tenzing Norgay. Since 2004, the award has been presented alongside the six National Sports Awards at a formal investiture ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi, where the President of India confers the honour. Its status is considered equivalent to the Arjuna Award, which recognises consistent outstanding performance in sports.
The award is given in four categories. Land Adventure covers mountaineering, trekking, rock climbing and caving, Water (Sea) Adventure covers open water swimming, sailing, kayaking and rafting, Air Adventure covers skydiving, paragliding and hang gliding, and Lifetime Achievement honours sustained contribution to promoting adventure sports over many years. Normally one award is given in each category each year, though the number can be increased with approval in exceptional cases. Nominations for a given year are generally accepted till 20 June through the central awards portal, and the cash prize has been revised over time from ₹50,000 in 1994 to ₹15 lakh today.
Who Was Tenzing Norgay and Why Is the Award Named After Him?
The award is named after Tenzing Norgay Sherpa (1914 to 1986), one of the first two persons confirmed to reach the summit of Mount Everest (8,848.86 metres). On 29 May 1953, Tenzing and Sir Edmund Hillary of New Zealand, as members of the British Mount Everest Expedition led by Colonel John Hunt, stood on the summit at 11:30 am. The success announced on the morning of Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation on 2 June 1953 became a landmark in exploration history.
Born as Namgyal Wangdi in the Khumbu region of Nepal to Tibetan Sherpa parents, Tenzing later made Darjeeling in West Bengal, India, his home. He began as a porter and kitchen boy for British expeditions in Darjeeling and first went to Everest as a porter in 1935 at the age of 19. He took part in more Everest expeditions than any other climber of his time and by 1952 had reached 8,599 metres with Swiss climber Raymond Lambert, the highest point reached by any human till then.
After 1953, Tenzing became a national hero in both Nepal and India. He was awarded the George Medal by Britain, the Padma Bhushan in 1959 by India and the Order of the Star of Nepal. He served as Director of Field Training at the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute (HMI) in Darjeeling, which was established in 1954, and trained generations of Indian mountaineers. He died on 9 May 1986 in Darjeeling. The renaming of India’s highest adventure honour after him in 2003 honours that spirit of perseverance at extreme altitude.
A common doubt is whether Tenzing Norgay was Indian, Nepali or Sherpa. He was Sherpa by ethnicity, born in Nepal to parents of Tibetan origin, and later became an Indian citizen by long residence in Darjeeling. He is therefore described as a Nepali-Indian Sherpa, and both countries claim him with pride. He was not knighted in the same manner as Hillary, he received the George Medal instead, and Edmund Hillary was knighted as Sir Edmund Hillary.
How Many Awards Were Given for 2024 and What Do Winners Receive?
For 2024, four recipients were selected. Two were named for Land Adventure, one for Water (Sea) Adventure, and one for Lifetime Achievement. No recipient was announced for Air Adventure in 2024, which is permitted when no nomination meets the selection committee’s standard in a category.
| Category | Recipients for 2024 | What the Category Recognises |
|---|---|---|
| Land Adventure | Baljeet Kaur, Skalzang Rigzin | Mountaineering, trekking, caving and other land based adventure |
| Water (Sea) Adventure | Rimo Saha | Open water swimming, sailing, kayaking and other water based adventure |
| Air Adventure | No award in 2024 | Paragliding, skydiving, hang gliding and other aerial adventure |
| Lifetime Achievement | Shiv Prasad Chamoli | Long term, sustained contribution to promoting adventure sports |
Each awardee will receive a 15 inch (38 cm) bronze statuette weighing about 1.5 kilograms. It shows Tenzing Norgay with the ice axe he used on Everest and is polished to highlight his figure. Along with the statuette, winners get a certificate, a blazer with a silken tie or a saree, and a cash prize of ₹15 lakh. The government also provides economy class travel and board and lodging for the ceremony. The reward amount was ₹5 lakh till 2020 and was revised to ₹15 lakh from 2021 onwards to bring it in line with enhanced National Sports Awards prize money. The award’s status remains equivalent to the Arjuna Award.
Who Are the Four Awardees for 2024?
Baljeet Kaur and Skalzang Rigzin for Land Adventure
Baljeet Kaur, 30, is a mountaineer from Mamligh village near Solan in Himachal Pradesh. The daughter of a retired Himachal Road Transport Corporation bus driver and a homemaker, she first experienced mountaineering at a National Cadet Corps (NCC) camp when she was 20 and later climbed Mount Trishul (7,120 metres) with an NCC team. She is the first Indian woman to scale five peaks above 8,000 metres in a single season, and the first Indian mountaineer to scale four 8,000 metre peaks in less than a month in May 2022, which included Mount Everest (8,848.86 metres), Mount Kanchenjunga (8,586 metres), Mount Annapurna I (8,091 metres) and Mount Lhotse (8,516 metres). She later added Mount Dhaulagiri (8,167 metres) and Mount Pumori (7,161 metres) to her record and scaled Mount Manaslu without supplemental oxygen.
Her most talked about expedition was Mount Annapurna I in April 2023, the tenth highest peak in the world and one of the deadliest with a high fatality rate. She summited without supplemental oxygen on 17 April 2023 and went missing near Camp IV at about 7,375 metres during the descent. She survived for nearly 18 to 19 hours in temperatures around minus 50 degrees Celsius above 7,000 metres and was located the next day after sending an SOS message and an aerial search with helicopters. She received the Indian Mountaineering Foundation Gold Medal for Excellent Performance in Mountaineering in 2023 before this national honour.
Skalzang Rigzin, 44, is from Ladakh and is the President of the Mountain Guide Association of Ladakh (LMGAL). With nearly 30 years of guiding in the Himalayas, he specialises in climbing without supplemental oxygen and without a high altitude guide. He became the first Indian civilian to summit Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen on 23 May 2024 at about 3:40 am, without Sherpa support. Before him, only seven Indians had summited Everest without oxygen, all from the Indian Army, with Phu Dorjee Sherpa in 1984 recognised as the first Indian to do so.
Rigzin had earlier become the first Indian to summit Mount Annapurna I without supplemental oxygen on 28 April 2022 and also summited Mount Lhotse (8,516 metres) without oxygen on 14 May 2022. He has therefore completed three 8,000 metre peaks without oxygen, a unique record among Indian mountaineers. His feat is notable because climbing above 8,000 metres, known as the death zone, without bottled oxygen sharply raises the risk of cerebral and pulmonary oedema and slows movement, and historically only about three dozen oxygen free Everest summits were recorded in the decade up to 2023 out of thousands of ascents.
Rimo Saha for Water Adventure
Rimo Saha, 36, is an international para channel swimmer from West Bengal. His lower right leg is disabled, and he has been competing since 2004. The Ministry cited his sustained medal record in the selection. He has won 48 gold, 37 silver and 17 bronze medals in National Para Swimming Championships and 16 gold medals in Open Water Sea Swimming Competitions, and has represented India in international open water events. His work belongs to the Water (Sea) Adventure category, which covers open water swimming and other sea based adventure, distinct from pool swimming honours.
Shiv Prasad Chamoli for Lifetime Achievement
Shiv Prasad Chamoli has been selected for the Lifetime Achievement award. He is a former Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and former head of the Winter Games Association of Uttarakhand. The Lifetime Achievement category recognises persons who have shown excellence in adventure and devoted themselves to promoting adventure sports over many years. The Ministry noted his decades long contribution to leadership in mountain rescue, winter sports organisation and outdoor pursuits, including training and institutional support for adventure activities in the Himalayan region while in service and after.
How Are Winners Selected and When Is the Ceremony?
The Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Awards are part of the National Sports Awards framework administered by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. Nominations are invited each year through an online portal at awards.gov.in and dbt yas sports portal, and are accepted from National Sports Federations, Sports Authority of India, Indian Olympic Association, state governments and through self nomination with due endorsement.
All nominations are screened for eligibility, for achievements in the previous three years for the three adventure categories and for long term contribution for Lifetime Achievement. A National Selection Committee constituted by the Ministry, chaired by a retired Judge of the Supreme Court or High Court and comprising eminent adventurers, Olympians, sports journalists, administrators and senior ministry officials, evaluates the nominations after due scrutiny. The Committee’s recommendation is final and is approved by the government, with video recorded proceedings to ensure transparency. Canvassing and furnishing false information lead to disqualification.
The awards for 2024 were announced on 2 September 2026. The winners will be conferred the honour by President Droupadi Murmu at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi, along with the National Sports Awards 2025 investiture ceremony. The exact date of the ceremony will be notified separately by the Ministry. Traditionally the ceremony was held on 29 August, National Sports Day, which marks the birth anniversary of hockey legend Major Dhyan Chand, but in recent years dates have shifted to January for logistical reasons, such as the 2024 awards presented on 17 January 2025.
Why the Award Matters for Adventure Sports in India
India’s adventure sports ecosystem rests on the Himalayas, the world’s highest mountain range, which accounts for most land adventure activity, and a long coastline and island territories that support water adventure. Recognition through the highest adventure honour encourages wider participation among youth, including from states beyond the Himalayan belt. While early recipients were concentrated in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, recent years have seen more winners from Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and West Bengal, reflecting broader geographic spread and rising participation of women and para athletes.
The 2024 list reflects three clear trends. First, it highlights oxygen free, alpine style climbing as the purest test of mountaineering, shown by Rigzin’s Everest ascent and Baljeet Kaur’s Annapurna summit without bottled oxygen. Second, it brings para adventure to the forefront through Rimo Saha, who has competed at national and open water level for two decades despite disability. Third, through the Lifetime Achievement honour to a former ITBP officer, it recognises the institutional backbone that the ITBP, Himalayan Mountaineering Institute and National Institute of Mountaineering and Adventure Sports provide for rescue, training and youth exposure.
At the policy level, the award supports the Ministry’s aim to build a culture of endurance, risk management and teamwork among young Indians and to strengthen adventure tourism, which is a growing part of India’s tourism economy in places such as Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and the Andaman Sea. By placing adventure on the same ceremonial platform as the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna and Arjuna Awards, the government signals that adventure achievements deserve the same national prestige as mainstream sporting success.
Key Takeaways
- The Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Awards for 2024 were announced on 2 September 2026 by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, with four recipients and no award in the Air Adventure category.
- The award is India’s highest adventure honour, instituted in 1993 and first given for 1994, renamed after Tenzing Norgay in 2003, and held equivalent to the Arjuna Award, conferred by the President of India at Rashtrapati Bhavan.
- Each awardee receives a 15 inch bronze statuette of Tenzing Norgay with ice axe, a certificate, a blazer with silken tie or saree, and ₹15 lakh cash prize, revised from ₹5 lakh in 2021.
- The award is named after Tenzing Norgay Sherpa, who with Sir Edmund Hillary made the first confirmed summit of Mount Everest on 29 May 1953 as part of the British Expedition led by Colonel John Hunt.
- Baljeet Kaur (Himachal Pradesh) and Skalzang Rigzin (Ladakh) won in Land Adventure, Rigzin being the first Indian civilian to summit Everest without supplemental oxygen on 23 May 2024.
- Rimo Saha, a para channel swimmer competing since 2004, won in Water Adventure with 48 gold medals in National Para Swimming Championships and 16 open water golds, while Shiv Prasad Chamoli, former ITBP DIG and head of Winter Games Association of Uttarakhand, received the Lifetime Achievement award.
