RAVINDRA KUMAR
( IAS / Mt. Everest / Author / Ex-Seafarer )
ABOUT RAVINDRA KUMAR
Mr. Ravindra Kumar is an IAS Officer of 2011 Batch of Uttar Pradesh Cadre. He was firstly allotted Sikkim Cadre, where served in various capacities such as Assistant Collector, Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM), Additional District Magistrate (ADM) and Director of Adventure Institute IHCAE in various districts of Sikkim from July 2012 to May 2016. Then his Cadre was changed to Uttar Pradesh, where he served as Chief Development Officer (CDO) in Sitapur District, District Magistrate in Farrukhabad District and Special Secretary of Commercial Tax-cum-Commissioner of Entertainment Tax Department in Uttar Pradesh from May 2016 till November 2017. Then he moved to Government of India, New Delhi as Private Secretary to Union Minister of Drinking Water and Sanitation Sushree Uma Bharti Ji in December 2017, where he served till June 2019. He returned to his cadre Uttar Pradesh again, where he joined as Director, State Nutrition Mission in Lucknow for few days and then he was posted as District Magistrate of Bulandshahr District, where he served from 11th July 2019 till 24th October 2021, then he was posted as District Magistrate of Jhansi where he is served from 25th October 2021 till 2nd October 2023. Then he was transferred as District Magistrate of Bareilly where he is serving presently since 2nd October 2023.
• Early Life and Education • Job in Shipping • Indian Administrative Services • Journey to Mt. Everest 2013 • Other Mountaineering Expeditions and Trekking • All India Services Everest Expedition 2015 Spring • Adventure Activities • Motivational Speeches • Social Services
EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION
He was born and brought-up in a farmer’s family in a remote village in Begusarai District of Bihar. He attended a number of different schools as he moved up through his education including Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Begusarai and Jawahar Vidya Mandir, Ranchi. He completed his 10+2 education as well as cleared Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Entrance Examination in the year 1999 but he decided to take shipping as career and so, joined Training Ship Chanakya (Mumbai). From there, he got Graduation Degree in Nautical Science in the year 2002 and joined an Italian Shipping Company ‘Finaval Spa’.
JOB IN SHIPPING
After graduated from T.S. Chanakya, Mumbai, he worked in Shipping (Merchant Navy) in a company called Pentagon Marine Service from 2002 to 2008 continuously, during which he was promoted to the rank of Chief Officer in 2007, a managerial rank officer on ship. But in 2009, discontinued his job and came to New Delhi to prepare for civil services examination. His love for sea attracted him to come back to ship even during civil services examination preparation and he used to go to ship for few months after writing mains examination. His last sail was in 2011 after declaration of final result and his selection in civil services examination. During his job at sea, he travelled across all the oceans of the world and also visited all the continents except Antarctica. Working with Europeans gave him good experience in Human Resource Management. Later, the zeal to serve the people of his own country motivated him to quit the job in shipping and join civil service. So, he joined Indian Administrative Service in 2011 after clearing civil services examination.
INDIAN ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES
He belongs to Indian Administrative Services of 2011 Batch. Initially, he was allotted Sikkim State as his cadre, where he worked in the state as Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) of Namchi Sub-Division of South Sikkim from August 2013 to February 2014 and then as Sub-Divisional Magistrate of Soreng Sub-Division of West Sikkim till May 2014. Then he came to New Delhi in June 2014 to work with “Minister of State for Rural Development, Panchayati Raj, Drinking Water & Sanitation, Government of India” “Sri Upendra Kushwaha” as his Interim Private Secretary and worked there for a short period of about three weeks. He came back to Sikkim, when the proposal for his appointment as Private Secretary was not approved by the Government due to some reason. For next three months, he worked as Director of Indian Himalayan Centre for Adventure and Eco-tourism (IHCAE), an Institute of Adventure Tourism under ministry of Tourism, Government of Sikkim before getting transferred as Additional District Magistrate of North District of Sikkim, where he worked till May 2016. In May 2016, his cadre was transferred from Sikkim to Uttar Pradesh, where he is posted currently as District Collector cum Magistrate of Bulandshahr District.
- May 2016 to April 2017 : Chief Development Officer (CDO), Sitapur District, Uttar Pradesh.
- April 2017 to Sep 2017 : District Collector cum Magistrate, Farrukhabad, Uttar Pradesh.
- Sep 2017 to Dec 2017 : Special Secretary, Commercial Tax Dept. & Commissioner, Entertainment Tax Dept, Govt. of Uttar Pradesh, Lucknow.
- Dec 2017 to June 2019 : Private Secretary to Union Minister of Drinking Water & Sanitation, Govt. of India, New Delhi
- 5th July to 11th July 2019 : Director, State Nutrition Mission, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh.
- 11th July to till present : District Collector cum Magistrate, Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh,
JOURNEY TO MT. EVEREST (2013)
After joining Indian Administrative Services in 2011, he got Sikkim as his Cadre and subsequently, he came to know that the state was devastated by Sikkim Earthquake in September 2011, which took many lives. He decided to learn mountaineering, when he came to know that local mountaineers also helped in rescue operation during the earthquake. The wish to reach and serve the people at grass-root level in emergency situation like earthquake motivated him to learn mountaineering, which subsequently, developed into his zeal to climb the highest peak of the world, Mt. Everest. Born and brought up in the plains and having spent long time at sea, he was totally unfamiliar with hills and mountains but once decided, he started preparing for climbing and never looked back. He came to Sikkim in July 2012 for one year of District Training, which is part of overall training of IAS Officers before joining respective cadre state as full-fledged officer. He did training courses from Himalayan Mountaineering Institute (Darjeeling) after joining Sikkim and continued his preparation for climbing as well as putting effort for getting government sponsorship after H.M.I. training along-with his district training in Sikkim. With all these efforts, within one year of district training period in Sikkim, he successfully reached on the top of the highest peak of the world on 19th May 2013. Mt. Everest was his first peak, which he climbed in spite of advice from many people that it’s very dangerous to try Mt. Everest at first instance and so, he should first try few smaller peaks.
His view of the world from the top of Mt. Everest: “While standing on the highest point of the Earth; it’s fascinating to see the boundless Earth in its round form. Facing towards India, on the left side- you see mighty Mt. Kanchenjunga, on the right side- Mt. Makalu and at the back- the vast Tibetan plateau. The limitless horizon on all sides, under your own two eyes, gives you the feeling that the mother Earth doesn’t know its boundary….alas if it would have been a reality… a country less, boundaries & so, ever peaceful earth…!”
OTHER MOUNTAINEERING EXPEDITIONS AND TREKKING
He is fond of long distance trekking but the first trek of his life was around hills of Mussoorie during training in IAS Training Academy in 2011. Later he continued his trek during district training in Sikkim. He has done extensive trekking in North Sikkim as well as West Sikkim. In North Sikkim, he has trekked extensively and has covered on foot the distance of about 125 km from Mangan (district head quarter of North Sikkim) to last Army post called “Bunker” near China border. Similarly he has extensively trekked in West Sikkim and has covered last trekking spot near Nepal Border. He also completed Sandakphu Trek in Darjeeling District of West Bengal, which is located at India-Nepal border and is the highest point of West Bengal.
After returning from Everest in 2013, he continued climbing also as and when he got time and opportunity in addition to his regular job in “Indian Administrative Services”. Subsequently, he climbed Mt. Thingchenkhang (6010 Mtr.) in November 2014 and B.C. Roy Peak (17800 feet) in Feb 2015 as part of Pre-Everest Expedition for ‘All India Services Everest Expedition 2015. Both peaks are situated in West Sikkim Himalaya.
“ALL INDIA SERVICES EVEREST EXPEDITION 2015 SPRING”
To commemorate the Golden Jubilee Year of first Indian Ascent of Mt Everest in 1965, an “All India Services Expedition to Mt. Everest” was organized in 2015. The Expedition was organized by Indian Mountaineering Foundation (IMF), the apex body for mountaineering related activities in India under Ministry of Youth affairs & Sports, Government of India. The aforesaid expedition was recognized and supported by “Ministry of Youth affairs and Sports” as well as “Ministry of Personnel and Training”, Government of India.
The Team comprised of five All India Services Officers from five different states of India. The leader of aforesaid expedition was Mr. Ravindra Kumar, an IAS officer of 2011 Batch from Sikkim. He had already climbed Mt. Everest in May 2013 and became the first IAS Officer of India to climb the highest peak of the world.
This was first time in India that a group of officers from “All India Services” had joined hands together and was committed to take such a courageous venture. Expedition was also first of its kind to climb the peak of Mt. Everest carrying the message of ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’ to raise awareness about health and hygiene in the world from the world’s highest peak. The Expedition was flagged off by, Hon’ble Prime Minister of India, Sri Narendra Modi, on 27th March 2015 in New Delhi. After flag off, the expedition team arrived Kathmandu on 30th march 2015. The team commenced trekking in 1st week of April 2015 and reached Everest Base Camp at 17600 feet around mid April. The team was scheduled to attempt the summit of Everest in second half of May 2015 after completing a series of acclimatization in the mean time.
But Nepal earthquake and resultant avalanche shattered the attempt by killing and injuring many people at Everest Base Camp. Team Leader Mr. Ravindra Kumar, with his tremendous inner courage, managed to rescue few lives along with his team advisor Mr. Kazi Sherpa in extremely dangerous post avalanche scenario at Everest Base Camp and Himalayan Rescue Association appreciated his effort for the same.
Journey to Mt. Everest 2019
Shri Ravindra Kumar, an IAS Officer of Uttar Pradesh Cadre who had already conquered Mt. Everest in 2013, has scaled it again on 23rd May 2019 at 4.20 am early morning. Being posted in Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation in Government of India as Private Secretary to Hon’ble Minister for last one and half years, he focused mainly on water sector and climbed Everest to give a call to people of India from the top of the world towards urgent need of controlling Water pollution, saving Rivers and other sources of waters and ensuring availability of Clean Water to All. He named his expedition as “Swachh Ganga Swachh Bharat Everest Abhiyaan 2019” and carried Ganga Jal to the highest peak of the world and offered there to attract attention of people of India because River Ganga provides water to almost 50 crore people of India and so, Ganga Jal can be taken as symbol representing all water sectors of India.
Mr. Kumar is the first and only IAS Officer of India, who has climbed Mt. Everest. His first scale of Everest in 2013 from Nepal (south) route was inspired by Sikkim Earthquake of 2011, where mountaineers were called for search and rescue mission post earthquake in Sikkim. His second Everest Expedition in 2015 was organized with a mission to spread awareness about importance of Sanitation in India through ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’, which was flagged off by Hon’ble Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi Ji. During that expedition, he faced Nepal Earthquake and Avalanche at Everest Base Camp on 25th April 2015, which caused huge damage to life and property; but in spite of endangering his own life in the process, he saved many lives. With this year’s successful climb from China (North) route, he has became one of the few distinguished Indians, who has scaled Everest from both Nepal and China route, which are two major routes for climbing Everest.
In the present scenario, focus on Water Sector especially Drinking Water is one of the major need of the hour, because as per NITI Ayog’s report titled ‘Composite Water Management Index’ of June 2018, Delhi and other 21 cities in India would run out of groundwater by 2020, affecting 100 million people. Other than the urban population, 85 percent of the rural population is dependent on ground water for drinking, and more than 100 districts spread across India are affected by contaminated water.
Many other water sources are contaminated with both biological and chemical pollutants. Many rivers are nearly dying due to the discharge of pollutants and lack of continuity due to insufficient water. The ground water table is declining and creating a ground for the future water crisis.
According to a report, due to above factors, India is facing water crisis of historic proportions, with significant chunk of the population—grappling with either severe water shortages or polluted water supplies contaminated with bio and chemical pollutants, and so, as per world bank report, over 21% of the country’s diseases are water-related. So, about two lakh people die every year due to inadequate access to safe water. Further, the Water crisis is not isolated in itself, it would also threaten food security as over 80 percent of the total water used in India is used for agriculture. Over and above this, we must not forget that two-thirds of our body is made up of water itself. So, we can imagine the impact of the water crisis.
Therefore, this sector needs not only immediate attention but there is an urgent call to make it a ‘Jan Andolan’ by mass people’s involvement in addition to Government’s effort to stop future water crisis. That’s why, through 2019 Everest Expedition, he targeted water sector and urged people to India from the highest point of Himalaya, the source of major rivers of India and thus, sources of major water needs of Indians, to save water at their personal level. Because water is a daily need of 1.25 billion people of India, who use it for drinking, toilet, bath, laundry, irrigation, industry, etc. Controlling wastage of water is one of the major challenges in India, which can’t be done by government alone unless people themselves get involved in saving its valuable water resources. With people’s involvement, wastage can be easily controlled by stopping wastage of water in daily activities like repeated toilet flush even after piss, letting water tap open during brushing, lavish bath, Sunday cleaning spree, letting tap open for cleaning vegetables in kitchen, etc where significant amount of water can be saved if 1.25 billion population will become aware of it.
According to a report, Today, over 80 percent of the total water used in India is being used for agriculture but of the water available for irrigation, more than 60 percent is wasted. Using effective irrigation technique can save this huge amount of water. According to one other, India is one of the few countries in the world where the cities provide as much as 200 liters per capita per day of water. But, most of it is wasted, used for cleaning toilets, washing cars and maintaining gardens.
Mr. Ravindra Kumar is an IAS Officer of 2011 Batch. In the past, he has worked at various posts including Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM), Additional District Magistrate (ADM), Chief Development Officer(CDO), District Magistrate (DM) and Commissioner, in State Government of Sikkim and Uttar Pradesh and then he got posted in Government of India as Private Secretary to Union Minister of Drinking Water and Sanitation in Government of India, Sushree Uma Bharti and worked there from Dec 2017 till 14th Jun 2019. Presently he is posted in Government of Uttar Uttar Pradesh.
Mr. Kumar has also authored two motivational books on his previous journey to Mt. Everest. The books named “Many Everest – An inspiring journey of transforming dreams into reality” and its Hindi version “एवरेस्ट : सपनो की उडान : सिफर से शिखर तक”, published by Bloomsbury, talk about an innovative technique to success named ‘Advanced Positive Visualization’, which uses the innate power of human brain to catch image of anything before any other sensory perception like speech, hearing, smell, touch etc. The author scientifically explains and practically demonstrates his technique to the readers and tries to motivate them, how he, in spite of coming from a destitute background and facing multiple obstacles in life, set up many milestones in a short span of time. The books proved extremely useful for students and competitive examination aspirants.
For his exemplary deeds, Mr. Kumar has received many awards and recognitions including “Sikkim Khel Ratna Award”, Bihar- Vishesh Khel Samman”, Kashti Ratna Award, Sailor Today Sea-Shore Award, Samudra Manthan Award Felicitation, Jaimangla Kabar Award, Atal Mithila Samman, National Gaurav Award, Bharat Gaurav Award and many more accolades.
Shri Ravindra Kumar was born in a necessitous farmer’s family in Begusarai District of Bihar in the year 1981. Although lean, thin and physically weak in his childhood, he was meritorious in academics. Starting with his initial education in a rural Hindi medium school in the village, Mr. Kumar cracked IIT Entrance Examination in 1999 in his maiden attempt and then, worked over a decade in the field of Shipping. Finally, he settled in his current job in the Indian Administrative Services in 2011 after clearing Civil Services Examination.
Other than mountaineering, he has also done many other Sports &Adventure Activities like Bungee Jumping, Flying Fox, Para Sailing, SCUBA Diving, Skin Diving, Horse riding, River Rafting extra in the past. He has also been a ‘Black Belt in Karate’, a good swimmer and marathon runner in the past. He has also been active on the social welfare front and has taken many initiatives in the past to help poor and helpless people. He is also a motivational speaker and has given motivational lectures in some of India’s top training institutions like I.A.S. Training Academy at Mussoorie, I.R.S. Custom Training Academy at Faridabad and many other institutions as well.
Schedule of climb :
Mr. Ravindra departed from New Delhi on 10th April 2019 and arrived Kathmandu same day. After collecting equipment and other formalities by logistics agency, he departed from kathamndu on 12th April for China Side (North Side) Everest Base Camp via Lhasa and arrived Base Camp on 18th April 2019.
China Side Everest Base camp is located at 5200 meters altitude. There are 5 more camps above Base Camp.
- Everest Base Camp : 5200 meter
- Intermediate Camp : 5800 mtr
- Advance Base Camp : 6400 mtr.
- North Col : 7100 mtr
- Camp 2 : 7700 mtr
- Camp 3 : 8300 mtr
- Everest peak : 8848 mtr
After reaching Base Camp, climbers have to go through acclimatization schedule before attempting the peak, where climbers climb to a higher altitude to adjust their body to changing atmospheric conditions. With an increase in altitude; temperature, air pressure and oxygen content in the atmosphere decreases, so the human body needs to adjust itself to these changing parameters. Mr. Kumar climbed till North Col (7100 meters) and spent one night over there for his acclimatization.
After reaching Base Camp, acclimatization went on till next 15 days ie 1st week of May.
After completion of acclimatization, climbers have to wait for fair weather and route opening by the Chinese authority. The route to the peak was opened on 22nd May and Mr. Kumar summitted peak on very next day, ie 23rd May at 4.20 am.
ADVENTURE ACTIVITIES
Other than mountaineering, he has been keenly interested and has taken part in many other sports and adventure activities like bungee jumping, flying fox, para sailing, SCUBA diving, skin diving, horse riding, river rafting etc. in the past. He is also “Black Belt in Karate” which he had achieved during his college days in Mumbai. He has also been a good swimmer in the past and has won many prizes in different styles of swimming during his college days.
MOTIVATIONAL SPEECHES
Mr. Ravindra Kumar is fond of jogging, doing yoga and meditation, playing chess and giving motivational speeches. He won many prizes in speech competition during his student life. After returning from Mt. Everest, he has been giving motivational speeches at many platforms to motivate the youth of the country to come forward and to rise high in life. He has given lectures in some of India’s top training institutions like I.A.S. Training Academy LBSNAA at Mussoorie, National Academy of Customs, Excise and Narcotics (NACEN) at Faridabad etc. He has also motivated thousands of youths during State Youth Festival in Bihar, where Government of Bihar invited him.
SOCIAL SERVICES
Other than sports and adventure activities, he has been actively contributing in the field of social welfare and has taken many initiatives in the past to help poor and helpless people. For example: He organized voluntary fund contribution campaign on Facebook and collected and handed over Five Lakhs & Seventy Thousands Rupees to help the aggrieved family of two students, who lost their life after getting selected into Civil Services Examination. While undergoing training in I.A.S. Academy Mussoorie; he organised many blood donation camps to collect blood, which would be used in emergency to save life of many people who need it on urgent basis. He also organized many health camps for poor children in the vicinity and collected fund worth One Lakh & Twenty Six Thousands Rupees to support the higher education of children of poor staffs employed in I.A.S. Academy Mussoorie.
Social Work: Late Shriraghunathji / CSE 2010 Rank 459
Social Work:Help The Aggrieved Family
