Every year, hundreds of climbers from all across the globe assemble around Nepal’s majestic mountains to achieve their singular lifetime dream: to stand atop some of the highest points on earth including Mount Everest.
They return home with a lifelong memory, leaving behind foothills of trash in the mountains. The garbage has been piling up every year, creating some of the highest dumping sites in the world.
With the beginning of yet another spring season, Nepal Army has resumed its work to tackle this waste menace.
NA initiated the cleanup campaign in 2019 and have already collected nearly 40 tons of solid waste. This year’s campaign, which started on April 5, would cover four mountains– Everest (8,848.86 m), Lhotse (8,516 m) Kanchenjunga (8,586 m) and Manaslu (8,163 m)– along Nepal’s northern frontier bordering China.
The real extent of pollution remains unknown but there is an estimated 140 tons of material, 40 tons of human waste and several mortal remains of climbers in the Mount Everest region, according to government estimates. The waste mainly include trash left by mountaineers and trekkers including plastic bags, oxygen cylinder, stoves, water bottles, tents, clothes, ropes, batters, cans and glass. There are an estimated 300 dead bodies of climbers above base camp, many buried deep in snow.
“Our target is to collect and evacuate 35 tons of garbage from these mountains this spring,” Brigadier General Himansu Khadka told reporters at a program organized at army headquarters in Kathmandu to see off his team of soldiers and Sherpa guides.
In 2019, the army had collected 10.2 tons of waste, while it gathered around 27.4 tons in a cleanup campaign conducted in 2021. The campaign was halted in 2020 due to COVID-19 outbreak.
A 35-ton of garbage is just a fraction of garbage dumped in the highlands. “The campaign is to keep the beauty of the mountain intact as well as create awareness about the mountains,” said Khadka.
NA said that Lt Colonel Kishor Adhikari will be leading the overall cleanup campaign in Everest, while Major Samir Basnet will lead in Kanchenjunga. The duo successfully climbed Everest in 2013. International Mountain Guides Tshering Jangbu Sherpa and Abiral Rai among others will support the army units for expedition as well as cleanup campaign.
NA said that the recyclable garbage will be handed over to the local bodies and non-degradable garbage will be brought to Kathmandu to be recycled. Previously, NA used to airlift the collected garbage to Kathmandu, spending huge amounts in transportation.
In recent years, stakeholders have been taking various measures to combat the pollution. For each climber, mountaineering agencies have to deposit garbage deposit fees of 4,000 dollars. The existing anti-pollution measure requires each climber returning from the Everest trip to bring 18 pounds of garbage from the high camps. If agencies are found to be complicit in littering, the authorities hold the right to deduct a certain amount from the deposit. Individual climbing agencies also incentivize their guides and workers for returning with waste in the form of bonuses and rewards. For instance, some companies give up to 130 USD for Sherpa guides returning old oxygen canisters.
Several businesses and nonprofits are also doing their part to combat pollution in Everest. Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee, a nonprofit established by the locals to tackle the pollution, manages all kinds of waste accumulated over the season. Ravi Nepal, a staffer of SPCC, said that the human waste is dumped in lower areas away from human settlement, while items like plastic bags, bottles or tissue paper, is destroyed using an incinerator at the town of Lukla. Recyclable waste and the items in good shape are reused.
In recent years, there has been a sharp increase in the number of climbers. In 2021, a record 408 climbers attempted to climb the world’s highest peak. The growing number of climbers has also led to an increase in pollution.
Recent cleanup campaigns including that of NA and sustained efforts from environmental agencies have helped curb garbage problems at the base camp and lower belt, although the problem remains at higher altitudes.
Despite NA’s claim of success in cleaning up mountains, Sherpa climbers and guides have long expressed skepticism over the Nepali Army’s involvement in the cleanup campaign. They accuse NA of sitting over budget and doing little to resolve the problem.
Before NA was awarded the project to launch the cleanup campaign, Sherpa guides had been lobbying with the government to give the jobs to high altitude climbers, according to Kami Rita Sherpa.
“Just like the Army has expertise on warfare, Sherpas have expertise on mountains. The government should have given us the job if it was really serious about the pollution,” Kami Rita, a guide who has summited Everest for a record 25 times, told Everest Chronicle in a recent interview.
“How can you expect NA to cleanup mountains when they lack manpower to do the job in higher areas?” he said.
NA says that it was partnering with Nimal Purja’s Elite Exped team to cleanup at high camps this time. They plan to remove discarded tents, ropes, oxygen cylinders and more. The company plans to pay climbers from other expeditions to bring garbage down when they return from their high-altitude.
For many years, Asian Trek and climate change campaigner PK Sherpa have been collecting waste from Everest.
The Himalaya is known as the water tower of Asia, supplying fresh water to the continent. Thanks to growing mountaineering activities and pollution, Nepal’s himalayas have been facing the devastating impact of climate change.
A recent study conducted by the National Geographic and Rolex Perpetual Planet Everest Expedition showed melting of the snow from the peaks at a fast rate. The study showed that the ice that took 2,000 years to form has melted in around 25 years.
Stakeholders said that the cleanup campaign was important to get rid of decades-long waste but emphasized the need for a sustainable plan to tackle pollution in the future.
Pollution continues to remain a big problem not just in Everest but also in other mountains, thanks to the authorities’ failure to strictly enforce anti-pollution measures. Despite strict policies, there is hardly any monitoring or efforts to book the offender. Legal action against climbers breaching the garbage rule is rare.
There are similar problems in lower areas of Everest, which receives thousands of trekkers every year. Khumbu Pasang Rural Municipality, the local body in the Everest region, has failed to make significant improvement despite its announcement to ban single used plastics in Khumbu regions.
Stakeholders stress on the need of enforcing strict environment-friendly rules instead of just focusing on garbage collection.
“Our cleanup campaign is for mitigating the impacts of global warming and promoting tourism,” said Army chief Parbhu Ram Sharma adding, “In the meantime, we need to formulate zero waste policies so that we can save our mountains for our younger generation.”
Every year, hundreds of climbers from all across the globe assemble around Nepal’s majestic mountains to achieve their singular lifetime dream: to stand atop some of the highest points on earth including Mount Everest.
They return home with a lifelong memory, leaving behind foothills of trash in the mountains. The garbage has been piling up every year, creating some of the highest dumping sites in the world.
With the beginning of yet another spring season, Nepal Army has resumed its work to tackle this waste menace.
NA initiated the cleanup campaign in 2019 and have already collected nearly 40 tons of solid waste. This year’s campaign, which started on April 5, would cover four mountains– Everest (8,848.86 m), Lhotse (8,516 m) Kanchenjunga (8,586 m) and Manaslu (8,163 m)– along Nepal’s northern frontier bordering China.
The real extent of pollution remains unknown but there is an estimated 140 tons of material, 40 tons of human waste and several mortal remains of climbers in the Mount Everest region, according to government estimates. The waste mainly include trash left by mountaineers and trekkers including plastic bags, oxygen cylinder, stoves, water bottles, tents, clothes, ropes, batters, cans and glass. There are an estimated 300 dead bodies of climbers above base camp, many buried deep in snow.
“Our target is to collect and evacuate 35 tons of garbage from these mountains this spring,” Brigadier General Himansu Khadka told reporters at a program organized at army headquarters in Kathmandu to see off his team of soldiers and Sherpa guides.
In 2019, the army had collected 10.2 tons of waste, while it gathered around 27.4 tons in a cleanup campaign conducted in 2021. The campaign was halted in 2020 due to COVID-19 outbreak.
A 35-ton of garbage is just a fraction of garbage dumped in the highlands. “The campaign is to keep the beauty of the mountain intact as well as create awareness about the mountains,” said Khadka.
NA said that Major Kishor Adhikari will be leading the overall cleanup campaign in Everest, while Major Samir Basnet will lead in Kanchenjunga. The duo successfully climbed Everest in 2013. International Mountain Guides Tshering Jangbu Sherpa and Abiral Rai among others will support the army units for expedition as well as cleanup campaign.
NA said that the recyclable garbage will be handed over to the local bodies and non-degradable garbage will be brought to Kathmandu to be recycled. Previously, NA used to airlift the collected garbage to Kathmandu, spending huge amounts in transportation.
In recent years, stakeholders have been taking various measures to combat the pollution. For each climber, mountaineering agencies have to deposit garbage deposit fees of 4,000 dollars. The existing anti-pollution measure requires each climber returning from the Everest trip to bring 18 pounds of garbage from the high camps. If agencies are found to be complicit in littering, the authorities hold the right to deduct a certain amount from the deposit. Individual climbing agencies also incentivize their guides and workers for returning with waste in the form of bonuses and rewards. For instance, some companies give up to 130 USD for Sherpa guides returning old oxygen canisters.
Several businesses and nonprofits are also doing their part to combat pollution in Everest. Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee, a nonprofit established by the locals to tackle the pollution, manages all kinds of waste accumulated over the season. Ravi Nepal, a staffer of SPCC, said that the human waste is dumped in lower areas away from human settlement, while items like plastic bags, bottles or tissue paper, is destroyed using an incinerator at the town of Lukla. Recyclable waste and the items in good shape are reused.
In recent years, there has been a sharp increase in the number of climbers. In 2021, a record 408 climbers attempted to climb the world’s highest peak. The growing number of climbers has also led to an increase in pollution.
Recent cleanup campaigns including that of NA and sustained efforts from environmental agencies have helped curb garbage problems at the base camp and lower belt, although the problem remains at higher altitudes.
Despite NA’s claim of success in cleaning up mountains, Sherpa climbers and guides have long expressed skepticism over the Nepali Army’s involvement in the cleanup campaign. They accuse NA of sitting over budget and doing little to resolve the problem.
Before NA was awarded the project to launch the cleanup campaign, Sherpa guides had been lobbying with the government to give the jobs to high altitude climbers, according to Kami Rita Sherpa.
“Just like the Army has expertise on warfare, Sherpas have expertise on mountains. The government should have given us the job if it was really serious about the pollution,” Kami Rita, a guide who has summited Everest for a record 25 times, told Everest Chronicle in a recent interview.
“How can you expect NA to cleanup mountains when they lack manpower to do the job in higher areas?” he said.
NA says that it was partnering with Nims Purja’s Elite Exped team to cleanup at high camps this time. They plan to remove discarded tents, ropes, oxygen cylinders and more. The company plans to pay climbers from other expeditions to bring garbage down when they return from their high-altitude.
For many years, Asian Trek and climate change campaigner PK Sherpa have been collecting waste from Everest.
The Himalaya is known as the water tower of Asia, supplying fresh water to the continent. Thanks to growing mountaineering activities and pollution, Nepal’s himalayas have been facing the devastating impact of climate change.
A recent study conducted by the National Geographic and Rolex Perpetual Planet Everest Expedition showed melting of the snow from the peaks at a fast rate. The study showed that the ice that took 2,000 years to form has melted in around 25 years.
Stakeholders said that the cleanup campaign was important to get rid of decades-long waste but emphasized the need for a sustainable plan to tackle pollution in the future.
Pollution continues to remain a big problem not just in Everest but also in other mountains, thanks to the authorities’ failure to strictly enforce anti-pollution measures. Despite strict policies, there is hardly any monitoring or efforts to book the offender. Legal action against climbers breaching the garbage rule is rare.
There are similar problems in lower areas of Everest, which receives thousands of treekers every year. Khumbu Pasang Rural Municipality, the local body in the Everest region, has failed to make significant improvement despite its announcement to ban single used plastics in Khumbu regions.
Stakeholders stress on the need of enforcing strict environment-friendly rules instead of just focusing on garbage collection.
“Our cleanup campaign is for mitigating the impacts of global warming and promoting tourism,” said Army chief Parbhu Ram Sharma adding, “In the meantime, we need to formulate zero waste policies so that we can save our mountains for our younger generation.”
