The award is named after Tenzing Norgay, one of the first two individuals to reach the summit of Mount Everest along with Edmund Hillary in 1953.

The recipients are honoured for their "outstanding achievement in the field of adventure activities on land, sea and air" over the last three years.

The lifetime achievement is awarded to individuals who have demonstrated excellence and have devoted themselves in the promotion of adventure sports.

In the first year 1994, twenty-two awards were given, out of which nineteen were given to the Indian members of the 1993 Indo-Nepalese Women's Everest Expedition.

In 2017, ten awards were given, out of which six were given to the members of Navika Sagar Parikrama, an all-woman sailing team for the circumnavigation of the globe.

The first and only team Arjuna award to date was presented in 1965 to the twenty mountaineers of the successful Indian Everest expedition of 1965.

[5] In 1993, the Union Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Sports, Mukul Wasnik announced the creation of a separate National Adventure Awards which was to be instituted as the "highest national recognition for outstanding achievement in the field of adventure activities on land, sea and air.

It is made of bronze and polished to highlight the age of Tenzing Norgay along with the ice axe he used when climbing Everest.

[18] As of 2020[update], the award comprises "a bronze statuette of Tenzing Norgay, certificate, blazer with silken tie/saree, and a cash prize of ₹5 lakh (US$5,800).

The recommendations of the selection committee are submitted to the Union Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports for further approval.

In the field of mountaineering, Love Raj Singh Dharmshaktu (awarded in 1999)[35] has gone on to climb Everest seven times, the highest for an Indian.

[45] The initial publication on 21 August 2020 of the 2019 awardees list had the name of mountaineer Narender Singh Yadav in the category of land adventure.

On 23 August, the Katmandu-based daily Kantipur published the photo that Singh had submitted to the authorities in Nepal as proof of reaching the Everest summit in 2016.

Several mountaineers pointed out the inaccuracies in the photo including the oxygen mask not having a pipe, no reflections on his sunglasses, flags he carried being still despite the high winds, no headlamps on his head and him wearing a helmet which is not worn by climbers on their summit day.

[49] Soon after that, the Sports Ministry opened a probe into the claims, withholding the award on 28 August and in the list of awardees attending next day's ceremony, Singh's name was omitted.

[50] Jamling Norgay and Bachendri Pal expressed displeasure that such a person was even considered for the award in the first place.