Skillfully carved and beautified hundreds of thousand years ago, the Great Himalayas was erected in a geological era by the inthrust of Indian plate into the great Asian landmass and decorated for ever by the unique ecology of the world. This valuable piece sustained myriad of lives providing shelter to live, flowing crystal clear water to drink. Furthermore, the great civilizations of Indus, Brahmaputra and Ganges culminated on its lap.
A quick event of 40 years has messed such pristine natural part of the world by littering. Pollution in the Himalayas has been basically generated by expedition, trekking and camping activities of trekkers (personal comm. Trekking agencies). Every year more than 300,000 people around the world visit Nepal and it has been estimated that the number will reach up to 442,214 by 1997 at the current rate of tourist invasion (Eighth Five Year Planning, 1990, pp 440). Each year, about 900 mountaineers, mostly from Europe, Japan and the US, visit Nepal to climb expedition peaks and about 40,000 other visitors climb the lower mountain trekking peaks (NY Times, Dec 16, 1994).
Pollution at the Mount Everest was first publicized by Barry G. Bishop, who after a successful climb labeled it as "the higest junkyard in the world" (Propopsal by Nepal Mountaineering Association as a part of Clean Himalaya Campaign, 1993, pp 1). Robert A. Hutchison has done detailed cataloguing of trash in his book, "In the Tracks of the Yeti", who calls it a major ecological scandal and says further that it is a galling tale of disrespect by the climbing fraternity, of arrogant disregard for nature by men an women who evidently believe their personal conquest are more important than preserving the integrity of a unique natural site (NMA, 1993).
Garbage accumulating on the Himalayas includes climbing equipment, foods, plastics, tins, aluminum cans, glass, clothes, papers, tents and dead bodies (Sports Illus. 1993, Vol 29, pp 12). Such trash are scattered everywhere at different camp levels. Hutchison (1991) estimates the garbage left by the expedition teams well over 50 tons, with about 500kgs on average by every team.
The problem can be defined by two ways. Firstly, the trekkers as the culprits for the garbage disposal. The Sports Illus. (1991, Nov 29) writes," Much has happened to the Mount Everest in the forty years since Sir Edmund Hillary and his Sherpa guide, Tenzing Norgey, first scaled it, almost all of it bad. Climbing the 29,208 foot peak has become common place--more than half of the 500 people to reach the top have done it in the last five years-and so, sadly littering. Environmentalists estimate that 50 tons of rubbish are scattered across the Everest, some of it predictable (tents, oxygen bottle) some of it unpredictable (baseball bats, frisbees), some of it downright macabre (dozens of corpse preserved by the cold)."
Focus, (Fall 1991, pp35) writes, "virtually no matter where you dig, you discover either a pile of buried trash or previously used toilet". McConell et.al (1991) say, "it was frightening to discover as much as medical waste we did. This included everything from bloody bandages to syringes with needles still attached, to vials of unlabeled injectible medication."
Secondly, the inadequate Nepali environmental policy can be taken as the major reason for the current problem. There emerged a little hope of protection of Himalayas when the Ministry of Tourism in 1992 made the first effort to cut back expeditions, rising the fee for Everest up to US $ 50,000 and sharply restricting the number of climbers (NY Times, Dec 16, 1994); however, the question of protecting other Himalayas and midland Mahabharat mountains remain as it is.
We must stop continued environmental degradation and preserve our bewitching landscape for ethical, spiritual, educational and esthetic values. Himalayas are our heritage ! It is our responsibility to protect the Himalayas from such anthropogenic disasters.
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