Colonel Hem Chandra Singh, the 8th principal of the Jawahar Institute of Mountaineering and Winter Sports, hails from the Bageshwar district of Uttarakhand. His educational journey includes schooling from Kendriya Vidyalaya No.2 Ferozpur and Army Public School Lucknow. He furthered his academic pursuits by joining the National Defence Academy in 2000, graduating from there, and completing his post-graduation at the Defence Services Staff College in Wellington. Commissioned into the Indian Army in 2004 with JAKLI Regiment and later, he became part of the esteemed Special Forces elite unit, the 1 Para SF Regiment.
Colonel Singh's leadership reached its pinacle during his command of the 38 Assam Rifles in the Northeast, particularly in Manipur and Nagaland, where his battalion was honored with the GOC 's Unit Citation and Governor of Manipur Unit Citation.
His expertise in adventure sports spans air, land, and water, exemplified by his completion of basic and advanced Mountaineering courses at the High Altitude Warfare School Gulmarg and Nepal Mountaineering School at Jomsom, where he was recognized as the Best Student.
With over 30 expeditions under his belt, including notable ones such as the North Pole Ski Expedition and scaling peaks like Mt. Nun and Kun, Torang La of Nepal, Mentok Kangri, Mt. Kolahoi, and Mt. Katsal, Colonel Singh's leadership facilitated the fastest ascent of Mt. Nun and Kun by the JIM and WS team, poised to set a LIMCA book of records.
In addition to his mountaineering prowess, Colonel Singh is a Combat Free Faller with over 100 jumps and an experienced underwater diver with more than 400 hours of diving.
Beyond his adventurous spirit, he is deeply rooted in Bharat's culture, embodying staunch nationalism and advocating for unity to strengthen the nation. He believes that dedicating oneself to nationalism is the key to personal, social, and national development.
An alumni of Military School Bangalore and National Defence Academy, Col IS Thapa has taken over as the Principal of this Institute on 30 Jun 2017. He has more than 20 years of adventure/ mountaineering experience and has been to approx 19 challenging mountaineering expeditions including two above 8000 mtrs (Mt Everest and Mt Kanchenjunga). Under his leadership the Institute sprouted and made huge progress in Infrastructure, Training. His contribution towards the development of the Institute is immeasurable
An experienced and highly qualified Mountaineer, Col Virinder Singh joined this Institute on 23 Mar 2009 after having done his two tenures at HAWS Gulmarg. He devotedly tried to extend and upgrade the Institute with its various aspects to bring it on the map of international mountaineering world. In his tenure at the Institute till date he has added feather to the cap of the Institute by successfully summiting the Mt Kolahoi (5427M) in Aug 2009 with thirty other climbers, doing commendable job during avalanche rescue at Gulmarg in 2010. He always looked forward for the betterment of the Institute.
Group Capt SS Puri, commanded this Institute for a long tenure than any other Principals. He streamlined many administrative and training procedures and started organizing environment awareness campus as a nature lover and hence the Institute was bestowed with INDIRA PR1YADARSHINI VRIKSH MITRA A WARD-2000
Joined the Institute in 1993 as 3rd Principal, he did best of his efforts to keep up the morale of the staff high even in the worst scenario of militancy when the Institute had great difficulty in acquiring funds. He kept the training going uninterrupted by sending the courses to Manimahesh in Himachal Pradesh.
Col KS Mall, VSM, was the 2nd Principal of the Institute who put in efforts to bring the Institute at national level. In view of deteriorating situation in the valley due to militancy he faced great hardships in administration and training. As a solution in 1992 the Institute was shifted to Batote for uninterrupted continuation of course.
Brig SS Kahlon was the 1st Principal of the Institute who under the guidance of Late Brig Gyan Singh, and the instructions of late Shri HC Sarin and Late Smt Indira Gandhi, recede the Aru,Pahalgam area and selected Aru as the suitable site for the establishment of the Institute. He in adverse conditions started the first Basic Mountaineering Course with 17 students in 1985.
