More than three tonnes of trash and at least four dead bodies have been collected from Mount Everest in recent weeks, it has been reported.
During a massive campaign to clean the mountain, which began on April 14 out of Nepal, decomposing bodies have been discovered among the rubbish.
Officials expect they will remove 11 tonnes of garbage by the end of the 45-day campaign period — and perhaps even more bodies, according to The Himalayan Times.
In recent years the tallest mountain in the world has been nicknamed "the world’s highest garbage dump” because of the uncleanliness and rubbish that has been dumped by climbers.
Every year, hundreds of climbers, Sherpas and high altitude porters make their way to Everest, leaving behind tonnes of both biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste — including empty oxygen canisters, kitchen waste, beer bottles and faeces — on the highest peak.
Mr Whippy frozen out as London bans ice cream vans in anti-pollution crackdown
Nepal’s tourism department, local government and other mountaineering groups are working together as part of the campaign to clean-up the mountain, which is the first of its kind.
Speaking to The Hindu Dandu Raj Ghimire, Nepal’s tourism director, said: "Our goal is to extract as much waste as possible from Everest so as to restore glory to the mountain. Everest is not just the crown of the world but our pride.”
Tika Ram Gurung, secretary of the Nepal Mountaineering Association told The Kathmandu Post : "Everything on Everest, other than rock and snow, will be brought back.
Shrimp found in UK rivers have cocaine and ketamine in their systems
"The goal is to send the message that we should keep this mountain pollution free.”
Ang Tshering Sherpa, former president of the Nepal Mountaineering Association said: “Because of global warming, the ice sheet and glaciers are fast melting, and the dead bodies that remained buried all these years are now becoming exposed.”
According to ABC, 5200 people have hiked to the top of the highest mountain in the world, and another 775 are planning to try it this year. With those trips, people often leave things behind.
Children will make protest letters and banners in compulsory climate change lessons
Because the trip is challenging, some people meet a more harrowing fate. Everest has claimed the lives of almost 300 climbers since the first attempt to conquer the mountain in 1921, two-thirds of whom are buried in the mountain’s ice and snow, the BBC reported earlier this year.
The outlet reported that, with global warming, those bodies are now being uncovered.
Tories crushed in local elections as voters give Theresa May kick in the ballots
There have been attempts in the past to clean up Everest, including a 2014 government-mandated provision making it mandatory for every climber to come down the peak with at least 8kgs of garbage — the amount of trash estimated to be produced by one climber.
The month-and-a-half clean-up campaign is supported by a number of governmental and non-governmental agencies.
The campaign will conclude on May 29, the day marked every year to commemorate the first summit of Everest by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953.
.jpg?w=600)
