The Effect of Pollution on Mount Everest

Nepal is the small, one of the poorest country of the world. Yet it is very rich in natural resources and scenic beauty including highest ranges of Himalayas. Nepal is the home of the eight highest mountains out often in the world. Mountaineers, trekkers and skilled professionals regularly visit to scale the Mountains in Nepal, which has increased the number of tourist in Nepal. In the last decade, people’s attraction toward the mountaineering has increased a lot, by which number of climbers visiting Mount Everest has also been increased.
Due to the increasing umber of climbers in the Everest, pollution in and around the Everest has increased and it needs a special attention to prevent from the pollution. Everest attracts people of all around the world. In the past only few climbers who know well about the mountains used to come but today most of the interested people who have enough economic sources visit Himalayas to climb the mountain. According to Norbu Sherpa, a mountain tourist guide, people come to climb Everest as they want to be famous scaling the tallest mountain in the world (Wawahare).
In the early 2000s the number f tourist arriving to Nepal was around 400,000 but in last two years people flowing to Nepal has increased rapidly reaching around 900,000 nearly triple of starting 2000s as per the statistics given by the Nepal Tourism Statistics in 2012 (Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation ). As the numbers of climbers has increased, pollution in the highest portion of the peaks has been increased.

Pollution in the Everest includes foods, plastics, cans, gas tanks, papers, climber’s equipment, human excreta, and also dead bodies of climbers. According to Norbu Sherpa in the article, “A Conversation with: Mountain Guide Norbu Sherpa”, if the flow of the climbers is frequent, more and more waste is created (Wawahare). The article “Everest Maxed Out” published on June 2013 in National Geographic Magazine by Mark Jenkins provides information about his climbing on Everest and the flow of climbers he saw near camp Ill and pollution in the Everest.
Jenkins says, “The two standard routes, the Northeast Ridge and the Southeast Ridge, are not only dangerously crowded but also disgustingly polluted, with garbage leaking out of the glaciers and pyramids of human excrement befouling the high camps. And then there are the deaths. ” Pollution due to death of climbers happens especially due to certain change in weather and climbers who is less experienced or trained. Despite of being polluted, Everest fascinates and attracts the climbers toward it every year.
As the increasing numbers of trekkers and climbers in the Everest has led to the pollution, government should try to clean up all the wastes in the Everest utilizing the revenue they had earned from the tourism industry. Norbu says, the government earnings through tourism has not been utilize in mountains nor for benefit of Sherpas (Wawahare). Government should make strict rules and laws to punish the people who makes pollution in the Everest.
If the Climbers did not bring back their all used equipment’s and the trash from Everest they should lose their deposit money and Sherpas should be rewarded if they brought wastes to the lower base of Everest. And also government, mountaineering agencies should limit the number of people climbing the mountain in every season or month which will not only helps to control pollution but also maintains the traffic Jams in Everest. A climbers, guides and Sherpas should be provided trainings to handle the severe eather condition in mountain so that deaths in the mountains decrease.
Decreasing the number of deaths and limiting the number of climbers on Everest pollution will be controlled and also government needs to be aware about the pollution on Everest and utilize their revenue for reducing pollution in mountains. Everest is one of the main factor that world recognizes Nepal, so every concerned individual as well as government and agencies should control pollution. Controlling pollution it will not only preserve the beauty of Everest but also more people can have the glory to scale the Everest in future.