NEPAL - THE LAND OF GARBAGE??? | Feature

"The land of mountains" - Nepal, since more than half a century has been opened for mountaineering. The natural and cultural heritage of Nepal attracts tourists to this Himalayan kingdom of Nepal. The inflow of visitors in Nepal has increased over the past years. The mountains of Himalayan range and trekking sites have become popular worldwide and thousands of tourists have started pouring into the country, most of them with a dream to scale the beckoning Himalayan peaks for the sheer pleasure of trekking. Everest is considered as the pride of Nepal. With the increasing number of tourists in town, popular trekking areas like Jomsom and Everest region have started facing a major problem i.e. of rubbish piling on Everest regions. Even Mount Everest, the tallest peak of the world is not free from this problem. Tonnes of non-biodegradable garbage have been piling up in the area causing a serious threat to its ecology. The beauty, the pride of Nepal is being threatened because of the increasing amount of unwanted materials on Mount Everest - an attraction for thousands of visitors who come to Nepal every year just to sit under the shadows of the Himalayas. It is here that their desire for peace is fulfilled. So, in order to maintain the attraction and the beauty of the Himalayas, it has become very necessary for the people of the country to walk ahead and take up possible steps to clean up Mount Everest. Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA) has taken up a similar job and has succeeded in getting down nearly 4311 kg of garbage from the Mount Everest.

The clean up campaign in Mount Everest was started in 1996 when Rs. 25 lakhs from the Tourism and Civil Aviation Ministry and Rs. 15 lakhs from the Nepal Mountaineering Association was donated for this noble cause. The team had succeeded to get down nearly 2000 kg of garbage from the Everest. The corpse of a foreign mountaineer was brought down and cremated. Later, due to various reasons Nepalis took the cleaning mission in their own hands. Various stations like NHK, Radio Australia, BBC gave prior importance to the clean up campaign and advertised it.

Last year, during the third clean up tour, approximately 1000 kg of waste were collected from the Everest area. After incinerating them, some at Sangbocha and Lukla, 200 to 300 kg was brought down to Kathmandu. Recyclable waste was sold to local scrap collectors.

Mount Everest remained an attraction and a topic of discussion amongst people and their organizations. It remained in news for a long period of time. Due to the growing piles of heap, the Everest and its country are at a risk, and so the cleaning mission was given top most priority. The discussion as to who is responsible to clean up the garbage also became a focal point. An Everest Rejuvenation Campaign was organized by Tourism and Civil Aviation Ministry, Nepal Tourist Board, and the Nepal Mountaineering Association and it was decided that the rubbish would either be buried or burned and the remaining garbage would be brought down to Kathmandu. This resulted in 2315 kg of garbage burnt and 1996 kg of gas/oxygen cylinders and old silver utensils were brought down to the capital. Beer bottles, glasses, mineral water bottles, shoes, battery, etc. contributed to the garbage.

In a joint effort with a German conversion organization, I.E. and The Explore Nepali group, 14 Europeans and 34 Nepalis took charge fo the Everest cleaning project. The director of the Explore, Bharat Basnet in a press conference, declared that garbage that can be recycled would be distributed - batteries would be sent to Austria, and the remaining garbage would be thrown in the Kathmandu Nagar-Palika containers. He further said that one should be responsible for one's own waste and added - our Himalayan regions would be much cleaner if only the trekking expeditions could get more responsible without leaving it on the Himalayas. Only if the foreigners involved in the expedition could dispose the garbage, the Himalayas would remain as beautiful as ever. It is mandatory for everyone climbing Everest to carry down all their waste materials.

To continue their mission, Rs. 16,50,000 from the Tourism and Civil Aviation Ministry, Rs. 10,00,000 from the Nepal Tourist Board and Rs. 13,50,000 from the Nepal Mountaineering Association were donated for the welfare activity. The mission was to take place under the active participation of Nepal Mountaineering Association, the coordinator of the environment agency Mr. A. Sherpa and the Nepali mountaineers that were involved. The plan was to cut down on expenses, as compared to previous years, and 4311 kg of garbage was brought down spending Rs. 29 lakhs. The Nepal Mountaineering Association plans to bring down the corpses and cremate them in the future. For this work the association expects the national and international organizations to assist them. Though the government has a provision of making the mountaineers bring back everything they have carried while scaling the mountains, it has still not been fully implemented. Involvement of different organizations, including the local bodies in the campaign, clearly indicates that locals are also willing to extend co-operation to tidy up the trekking areas and maintain it. This initiative, after the Everest area clean up campaign, must be extended to other trekking routes and mountains. The trekkers and mountaineers too must extend cooperation in keeping clean the areas they visit. And as citizens of this country, we must all make a conscious effort to support and act.