Nepal Army chief flags off Everest cleaning campaign

Nepal Army chief Gen. Prabhuram Sharma on Thursday flagged off Mountain Cleaning Campaign 2024 with an endeavour to save the Himalayas by collecting 10 tonnes of garbage from the environmentally fragile region.

The 50-day cleaning campaign in the Mt. Everest region, Mt. Lhotse and Mt. Nuptse will be led by a 12-member team of Maj. Aditya Karki and bring back five dead bodies from Everest, according to a Nepal Army headquarters statement.

All stakeholders need to cooperate, collaborate and coordinate for the successful completion of the campaign as the preservation of the environment of the Himalayan mountain is a matter of public concern, said Gen. Sharma while handing over the campaign flag to Karki.

The statement said an 18-member Sherpa team will assist the Nepal Army in its cleaning expedition.

Nepal Army spokesperson Brig. Gen. Krishna Prasad Bhandari in a recent press conference said biodegradable waste will be brought to Namche Bazaar below the base camp and will be handed over to the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee (SPCC) for proper treatment.

The non-biodegradable waste and dead bodies will be brought to Kathmandu, he said.

The cleaning campaign is aimed at controlling human-made pollution in the Himalayas and to address the problems related to climate change, spokesperson Bhandari said.

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