The announcement was made in Copenhagen coinciding with the COP-15 UN Climate Change Conference and on the sidelines of the Summiteers´ Summit held on December 11.[break]
“Clean and responsible tourism is the need of the hour and we have thus decided to go for carbon neutral tourism,” Minister for Tourism Sarat Singh Bhandari, told Republica at the Scandic Hotel in Copenhagen.
The Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoTCA) has also written a letter of interest (LoI) to both Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA) and Everest Summiteers Association (ESA) in this regard seeking the private sector´s initiative to chip in. The MoTCA has also proposed to launch Clean the Himalayas International Drive by mobilizing national and international summiteers, donors, environmentalists, porters and local stakeholders.
“The local stakeholders and local community and all the lovers of the Himalayas will be asked to join the cleanliness drive,” Minister Bhandari, who met 16 Scandic tour operators and the Swedish and Norwegian press for announcing the campaign, said, adding, “Everest cleaning will be the main focus and we will ensure that porters carrying heavy stuff to the camps return with all empty cans and other trash from there.”
He further said, “One expedition has at least 10 porters. If these men can carry heavy loads of food stuff up the mountains, they can easily carry it down as well.” He also claimed that the government will ensure required logistics, laws and regulations to launch the international campaign.
After the interaction with international mediapersons, Bhandari told Republica that much positive support has been received in cleaning the Everest camps as rising pollution in the Everest has been a matter of grave concern amongst the locals of Solukhumbu and also the climbers. Besides the need to collect tons of trash, the government is also seeking technical support from the Scandinavian countries for recycling, decomposing, etc. It is also consulting with experts to look for measures to pick up frozen corpses from up the Mt Everest.
“We have to take care of the dead bodies and for this we need technical assistance, so we have invited the international community to join hands with us to help make the campaign successful,” Bhandari said, adding, “We have been successful in taking the message across to the concerned world leaders, civil society and environmental activists that our Himalayas is choking and climate change is causing the snow to melt very fast.” He, however, dismissed all possibilities of stopping climbing expeditions during the campaign.
Much international concern towards the deteriorating environmental scene at the Everest and the impact of climate change has been drawn toward the Everest region of late, especially after the two-time climber Dawa Steven Sherpa reported seeing a fly beyond camp 3 area. The 19-time climber Apa Sherpa told Republica on Friday that just within a span of 5-6 years, much waste has been seen in the camps.
Related story
Yeti Airlines initiates process to become ‘carbon neutral’
-1778465739.webp)
