Avtar Singh Cheema

Avtar Singh Cheema (1933–1989) was the first Indian born man and the 16th person in world to climb Mount Everest.^[1] Along with 8 others he was a part of the third mission undertaken by the Indian Army, in 1965, to climb Mount Everest after two failed attempts. The Indian Everest Expedition 1965 put 9 mountaineers on the summit on 20 May, a record which was unbroken until the 1978 German-French Expedition 13 years later.^[2](p477), and was led by Captain M S Kohli. Cheema's fellow summiters were Nawang Gombu, Sonam Gyatso, Sonam Wangyal, Chandra Prakash Vohra, Ang Kami, H. P. S. Ahluwalia, Harish Chandra Singh Rawat and Phu Dorjee.^{[3][4][5][6][7][8]} He was a captain in the 7th Battalion, The Parachute regiment at that time. Later he was promoted to colonel and commanded his battalion.^[9] He is also founder of Guru Harkrishan Public School in Sri Ganganagar District, Rajasthan.^{[citation needed]}

Avatar Singh Cheema
Born	Punjab, India
Allegiance	India
Branch	Army
Awards	Padma Shri Arjuna Award

1965 Indian stamp dedicated to the 1965 Everest Expedition

Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi meets the members of Indian Everest Expedition 1965 on the occasion of Golden Jubilee of this on 20 May 2015

Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi and members of Indian Everest Expedition

Honors and awards

He was awarded the Arjuna award^[10] and Padma Shri^[11] for his achievements.