As the pandemic grew ferocious in the Himalayan nation of Nepal, the
government there enforced various restrictions on travel and tourism across the
country. Domestic as well as international travel enthusiasts, hoping for an
adventurous trip up on the holy mountains, had to, unfortunately, cancel their
plans.
This was nothing short of a deadly blow for the various families
dependent on tourism for their sustenance while they were already reeling under
the wrath caused by the pandemic, as the mountains are a life-giver which is
the source of both divine and economic help for many.
What is Going
Wrong Up in the Mountains?
Even in all its glory and divinity, the way we have treated Everest,
and the other various mountain peaks, is blissfully ignorant at best or
downright criminal at the worst.
We, in our self- centered life, have not even left the surreality of the
beauty of the Himalayas to remain blemish-less, our destructive heavy hand has
littered and trashed even the highest mountains on the face of the planet, with
plastic water bottles, empty oxygen cylinders, food waste and many more things.
Thousands of climbers from around the globe try to conquer these
summits, but their adventurous mission leaves behind a trail of defacing, which
is highly detrimental for the sensitive ecosystem of the region.
Why Right Now?
Included in this list of people affected by this lull in tourism were
the sharp as and the local climbers of Mount Everest and other peaks who would
very often accompany their foreign counterparts as guides on their journey up
on the roof of the world.
But the local climbers were not in a mood to let go of this crisis as
a wasted chance to bring in a change. They took this rare opportunity to give
the divine mountains, holy as they are considered, going by the various
folktales of the region, the long-awaited treatment they deserve.
So, a group of climbers resolved to take a step to revive the serenity
of the mountains which they take in high regards. The mission was backed by a
Swiss luxury brand initiative, ‘Bally Peak Outlook’, which aims to protect the
most extremes of our mountainous landscape from the wrath of unregulated
tourism and unrelenting global warming.
In 2019 they had already worked up to clear the base camps of Mount Everest,
which made them realize the extreme seriousness of the situation.
What Was the
Mission?
So, in the year 2020, they set up an ambitious plan to clear up the
base camps of all the mountains above the 8,000 meters, and not only Mount
Everest.
This collaboration of a group of local climbers was led by environment
activist Dawa Steven Sherpa who single-handedly has been trying to get the
mountains rid of trash since 2008. Bally provided him with the resources to
scale up his operations to get the mountains clean more efficiently and
effectively.
His team worked tirelessly for 47 days, all along the arduous terrain
and climate, with a single vision guiding their action. It was certainly not an
easy task as they were not only battling the pandemic up there but also time,
as they had a very small window of a workable period before the harsh cold,
would have set in.
One more thing which they had to take care of, was that while they
were upon the hills, they had to remain vigilant as to not to create more trash
themselves, which made them think out of the box to find a sustainable approach
to do so.
After a long excruciating period of 47 days, the team was able to
collect a monumental 2.2 tons of garbage from the region, that is 2,000 kg of
waste, which is almost equal to three full-grown adult rhinos. The remarkable
and selfless work the team has done has made them the recipient of global
acclamation, as they truly deserve.
What is the
Bigger Picture?
But while we do celebrate this inspiring feat, we must now also
introspect, as to how did we reach here? When a team, of fellow human beings,
has cleaned up unarguably the most challenging terrain on earth, we must not
forget that only we are to blame for this menace in the first place.
We only, owing to our negligent and reckless behavior in total
disregard to the fine balance of mother nature, have disrupted the sensitive
working of the environment of the fragile ecosystems of places such as the
Himalayas.
Our single-minded pursuit of comfort and pleasure at the cost of
anything which does not belong to us has not only harmed the local region but
is now starting to fire its shots at us.
Mother nature, and especially our mountains, have been the cradle of
varied flora and fauna for millenniums, but today they are facing an
unprecedented threat, a threat which is now starting to question their entire
functioning and increasingly even their existence.
We are that threat who are unfortunately set on a self-destructing
task of harming our environment beyond repair.
The question of garbage in the isolated pockets of the Himalayas is
just a small portion of a larger scheme of things that is set bound to bring in
a terrifying calamity, now the onus is on us to do an urgent course correction
before we collide into our self induced bloviating zero hours.
Written by - Piyush Pandey
Edited by – Adrija Saha
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