Spokesperson for the Nepal Army Brigadier General Suresh Sharma, said the Chief of Army Staff of the Indian Army General Bikram Singh is arriving in Kathmandu to participate in a function scheduled for June 10 in the honor of the joint expedition team. “We have arranged the visit of Indian CoAS to take part in the ceremony but the date of his arrival has not been confirmed yet.”[break]
According to the Nepal Army´s Directorate of Public Relations (DPR), the joint Nepal-India army team have collected 2,250 kg of non-disposable garbage and about 1,760 kg of disposable garbage.
Colonel Prakash Jung Karki of the Directorate General of Military Training (DGMT), who is also chief liaison officer of the joint expedition, said, “The joint team carried the garbage down to Namchhe Bazaar and handed them over to Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee amidst a function organized at Barahadal Section.” The committee is yet to dispose of the garbage, according to DPR.
The teams worked hard for the past one month with the aim of collecting over 4,000 kg of garbage while scaling Mt Everest. According to Colonel Karki, the non-disposable garbage consists of cooking cylinders, oxygen cylinders, pieces of aluminum ladder, torn tents, empty food tins, camera batteries and other plastic objects.
The number of Mt Everest climbers have increased but very few care about the garbage they leave behind, Karki said.
Of the 34 members of the joint team, 29 are scheduled to return to Kathmandu on Tuesday whereas the others will stay at the base camp to participate in the Everest Marathon being held to mark the diamond jubilee of the first ascent of Everest. Six more army personnel will join the marathon, said Sharma.
Earlier, CoAS Gaurav Shumsher Rana was scheduled to visit Namchhebazar to welcome the joint expedition team but that was not possible due to unfavorable weather conditions, according to DPR.
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