Post by : Rameen Ariff

Nepal has announced a new five-year plan to clean Mount Everest and other high mountains in the country. The plan, prepared by the Ministry of Culture, Tourism, and Civil Aviation, will run from 2025 to 2029. Its goal is to keep the mountains clean and make climbing safer for everyone.

Mount Everest has been polluted for years. Climbers, guides, Sherpas, and porters have left behind trash, including plastic bottles, ropes, food waste, oxygen canisters, and even human waste. Plastic is especially dangerous because it takes hundreds of years to break down and can pollute soil and air.

Many climbers, including Japanese mountaineer Ken Noguchi, have said they were shocked to see litter on Everest. “Before going, I saw beautiful images of Everest on TV. But when I reached there, I saw trash everywhere,” he said.

Under the new plan, every climbing team must attend a clean mountain briefing before starting their expedition. On Mount Everest, a temporary waste collection center will be set up at Camp 2. Climbers and teams must bring back a certain amount of trash from higher camps and submit it at Camp 2. This is to reduce litter on the mountain.

The plan will also look for new ways to manage trash. Nepal may use ropeways and drones to collect waste from hard-to-reach areas above base camps. GPS tracking will also be tested to locate human remains on the mountains safely.

In 2024, Nepal already made it mandatory for climbers to use poop bags above the base camp to manage human waste. The new plan also includes rules to limit the number of climbers at a time. In recent years, Everest has seen “traffic jams,” with too many climbers trying to climb at the same time. The government will make laws to manage climbers according to the mountain’s natural limits and safe climbing weather.

The plan also suggests a study to possibly move Everest Base Camp to reduce environmental damage. Himal Gautam, director at the Department of Tourism, said, “The base camp is overcrowded and fragile. We want to see if there is a better place for it to protect the mountain.”

Nepal has worked on Everest cleanups before. In 2019, the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee (SPCC) and Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality led a campaign to remove trash. The Nepali Army helped clean Mount Everest and nearby Lhotse, collecting 10.8 tonnes of trash and recovering four human bodies. So far, the army has collected 119 tonnes of waste, 12 human bodies, and four sets of human remains.

Despite previous efforts, Everest still faces a big trash problem. From 2000 to 2007, Noguchi and his team collected about 90 tonnes of waste. But 25 years later, the mountain is still heavily polluted.

Nepal has eight of the world’s 14 tallest mountains, all over 8,000 meters. It also has 28 mountain ranges and over 6,000 rivers. The new five-year plan aims to protect these natural treasures while making climbing safer and more responsible.

The Everest Cleaning Action Plan is a big step to stop mountains from becoming dumping grounds and to make sure future climbers enjoy the beauty of Nepal’s peaks safely.

#Global News #Travel News