Mt Everest or Trash Mountain? Global Efforts to Clean Highest Peak

Global efforts are on to make the world’s tallest peak pristine again.

Mount Everest, the highest peak in the world, with an altitude of 8.848 metres (29.028 ft) is seen in this aerial view next to 6.812 metres (22.349 feet) high Mount Ama Dablam (bottom right). 

(Photo: Reuters)

Video Editor : Abhishek Sharma

Mount Everest is the dream summit of many climbers. But the world’s tallest peak is slowly becoming a mountain of trash. Large amounts of waste have been accumulating at Mount Everest. Tonnes of garbage has been left on the mountain by climbers – old tents, cylinders, human waste, etc.

While sherpas have been cleaning up the mountain for decades, a global effort has begun to clean Mount Everest. In 2018, China retrieved 8.5 tonnes of waste from the mountain alone. Nepal followed suit, with an attempt to airlift 100 tonnes of garbage.

In India, seven-time Everest climber Loveraj Singh Dharmshaktu scaled the mountain in May 2018 to promote the BSF’s ‘Clean and Save Glaciers’ campaign. Dharmshaktu said his aim was to create awareness among the people.

The campaign of Swachh Bharat is going around the whole country. So our senior officers thought we should start a campaign on cleaning the Himalayas and glaciers and create awareness among the people. We brought back 700kg of garbage, including human waste, old tents, butane gas and old oxygen cylinders. 

Loveraj Singh Dharmshaktu, Assistant Commandant, BSF

These efforts are making a dent in the Everest’s mountain of trash. But how successful these efforts are, considering the number of climbers to the world’s highest mountain are not slowing down, remains open for debate.

(With inputs from ANI, BBC and Reuters)