NA collects around 34 tonnes of waste from four mountains

The Nepali Army has collected as much as 34 tonnes of waste from four mountains under the 'Clean Mountain Campaign' this year.

This year's waste collection remains the highest in comparison to 2019 (at around 10 tonnes) and 2021 (at around 27.6 tonnes), according to NA.

The campaign that kicked off on March 5 has come to a conclusion marking World Environment Day on Sunday.

On the occasion, the team involved in the cleaning campaign handed over the flag to Chief of Army Staff (CoAS) Prabhu Ram Sharma to mark the end of the campaign for this year.

The campaign was launched in association with various non-governmental agencies and the private sector and garbage were retrieved from Sagarmatha, Lhotse, Kanchenjunga and Manaslu.

Among the solid waste brought from the mountains were 7,227 kgs of biodegradable and the remaining were non-biodegradable, shared with the NA. Similarly, the cleaning team collected skeletons of two humans from Mt Kanchenjunga.

According to Himanshu Khadka, Director of the Campaign and Director at the National Park and Wildlife Reserve Directorate, the cleaning team included 30 NA personnel and 48 Sherpas as support staff.

The biodegradable wastes were handed over to the concerned local levels while non-biodegradables were given to various organizations for recycling. Some waste is yet to be handed over, the NA said.

At today's event, the Director-General at the Department of Tourism Taranath Adhikari said that the need for a separate battalion or company of NA was felt for the conservation and cleaning of the mountains.

Likewise, CoAS Sharma asserted that it was the supreme duty of humans to maintain balance in an environment in the face of growing environmental degradation. Stating that the 'Clean Mountain Campaign' was one of the government's efforts toward environmental conservation, the CoAS said that the NA had been only playing a leading role in it.

He distributed appreciation certificates to the cleaning campaign members, supporting agencies and support staff.