Kathmandu, June 14 : The Department of Tourism (DoT) has flatly denied that congestion led to the deaths of a climber on the Mt Everest this spring. Issuing a press communique recently, it claimed,” The misleading information is being disseminated by national and international media that climbers died due to congestion or traffic jam. The truth is that such losses of lives were triggered by high altitude sickness, weakness or adverse weather conditions. This is something which is already proved by the post-mortem reports of deceased climbers.”
It may be noted that the department is being sharply criticized for issuing excessive permits to ascend the world’s tallest peak (8848 m) downplaying the safety of its summiteers.
“We have issued 381 expedition permits issued this year for the highest peak-which is not a huge number compared to 366 such permits in 2017 and 346 in 2018,” justified the department adding,” So, it is illogical to say that too many permits caused the congestion and resultant deaths of climbers on the Mt Everest.”
This year the DoT had issued expedition permits to a total of 868 climbers for 30 different peaks. Of the total, 381 members from 48 countries had received expedition permits to climb Mount Everest and among them 14 members were from Nepal.
