The file photo, taken on May 27, 2019, shows Nepali Army personnel gather bags of waste collected from the Mount Everest for recycling at Namche Bazar. (By AFP)
Nepals government on Friday rejected calls to use the pandemic lockdown of Mount Everest to stage a cleanup of the worlds highest mountain.
Fluorescent tents, discarded climbing equipment, empty gas canisters and human excrement litter the well-trodden route to the 8,848-metre (29,029-feet) high summit.
Authorities last month suspended permits for all mountain expeditions over the coronavirus outbreak, forcing the Nepal army to cancel an ambitious clean-up on six mountains including Everest.
"It is not possible this season," Danduraj Ghimire, chief of Nepals tourism department told AFP.
Mountaineering organizations say that the coronavirus crisis is a good opportunity to clean-up what is sometimes called the worlds highest garbage dump.
"The government should let a Nepali team just clean the mountain. Apart from clearing trash, it would give employment to Sherpas who have lost this seasons income," said Santa Bir Lama, head of the Nepal Mountaineering Association.
Last year, a 14-strong team spent six weeks scouring for litter at the Everest base camp and at Camp 4 -- nearly 8,000 meters up. They cleared the mountain of four bodies and over 10 tonnes of plastic bottles, cans and climbing equipment.
But many said it was just a fraction of Everests rubbish -- with the harder to reach camps still littered with abandoned gear.
Pasang Nuru Sherpa, who was part of last years team, said dragging down trash, and especially bodies, was difficult as hopeful climbers were going up.
"With the mountain empty our work would be much easier and faster and we would be able to clear a backlog of trash. There will only be more layers on snow on it next time and work will be harder," Sherpa said.
Foreign climbers pay at least $30,000 to tackle Everest but locals say they pay little attention to their environmental fallout.
Nepal levies a $4,000 rubbish deposit for each team to be refunded if each climber brings back eight kilos (18 pounds) of waste, but only half return with trash.
Last years spring climbing window, which normally starts in April, saw a record 885 people summit Everest.
Only a Chinese team is climbing on the north side this season.
The novel coronavirus, which causes a respiratory illness - dubbed COVID-19 - has infected more than 1,600,000 people and claimed the lives of over 96,000 others globally, as of Friday morning, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University.
The pandemic has confined billions of people to their homes and pushed the world into a recession.
(Source: AFP)
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