Keeping the Himalayas Pristine

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  Chris Walker 11 months ago

  The advance of the west up the side of Mt Everest is a challenge. Sir Edmund Hillary National Park has done amazing work, along with WWF to prevent the destruction of the environment but there are other problems. Sherpa people are leaving the area and selling or renting their lodges to non locals. This is inevitable but there needs to be a careful consideration of the loss of the Sherpa Culture. Life is difficult up in these mountains, so, I guess with a pocket full of money, Sherpa people can be attracted to other places where they live better, and have access to better education. It's also been difficult because Maoist, posing as a political party have been holding Sherpa people to threat in order to extort money from them. I don't know the answers. Someone recently wanted to put a road through the mountains. So, there are pressures coming from all directions. Again the future is inevitable. How do we preserve the beauty and innocence of these very sacred lands? With increased tourism comes an increased diversity of people. Israeli boys come from their years of military service and truly make a bad name for themselves, people from other countries add to the challenges. Adding a greater police presence here is totally against the culture. Last year the army posted a gun toting militia at base camp to prevent people climbing to the summit of Mt Everest before the Olympic torche went up. So, even Governments are playing a negative role in this sensitive topic. It's a good time to open the debate before discomfort turns to disaster...
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