Aparna Kumar is a 2002 batch IPS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre. She was attracted to mountaineering a few years earlier when she was posted at Moradabad, and commanding The 9th Battalion of PAC (Provincial Armed Constabulary which guarded the Chinese border before ITBP came into being). She was awarded the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award in 2018 for land adventure by the President of India.