Nepal govt extends rescue operation on Mount Everest till 2pm today
30 May 2016 1:44 AM GMT
After carrying out an extensive search for more than 72 hours, the rescue team due to inclement weather had failed to recover the bodies of Goutam Ghosh and Paresh Nath which were reportedly lying near the yellow band on the Mount Everest.Â
Though, the body of another member of the expedition team Subhash Pal has been recovered and flown to Kathmandu via Lukla. His body may be brought back to the city on Monday after conducting post-mortem at a hospital in Nepal. As the two bodies of the Bengal climbers are yet to be recovered, the state government had urged the Nepal government to give permission for yet another day so that rescue operation could be continued on Monday.Â
The Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee (SPCC) has given the permission to carry out rescue operation for another day following the request from the state government. Sayeed Ahmed Baba, the principal secretary of the state youth affairs department and other members of the special team who had visited Nepal also talked to the officials of the SPCC on Sunday in this regard.Â
As Sunday was the last day of search operation, all the Sherpas of the rescue team have descended from the Everest. The visiting team and the senior officials from the state can convince the Sherpas to continue the search for another day.Â
Nepal government has already closed the route to Everest for this season no Sunday. The rescue operation could only be done if the Sherpas are ready to climb the Mount Everest for yet another time to recover the two bodies.Â
The rescue operation in last three days had been hampered because of bad weather. The situation is getting bad to worse day by day. The weather would be biggest challenge to reach to the spot where the two bodies were lying is the biggest challenge for the sherpas on Monday.Â
It may be mentioned the only survivor among the four-member expedition team Sunita Hazra has returned home on Saturday in distressed condition. She was rescued from near camp four and taken to a Hospital in Nepal by helicopter.Â
Debdas Dutta, another climber who had climbed the Everest before them, had also returned to his Behala home on Saturday. Though the body of the climber Rajib Bhattacharya, who died while descending from the Dhaulagiri after successfully climbing the peak, brought back to the city on Saturday in the same flight in which Sunita returned.Â
Deaths of climbers dampen spirit of Everest DayÂ
The death of three Bengal mountaineers might have slightly dampened the spirit of the Everest Day celebration in Siliguri on Sunday. Â Sherpa Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary first climbed the Mount Everest on May 29 in 1953.Â
To commemorate the day the Himalayan Nature and Adventure Foundation (NAF) organizes a programme at Darjeeling More in Siliguri every year when people from various walks of life show their respect by garlanding a statue of Sherpa Tenzing who had set his feet for the first time on the peak.Â
Edmund, a New Zealand national who was accompanying Tenzing also scaled the Mount Everest on the same day.Â
Every year the programme is celebrated with pomp and grandeur at Darjeeling More where hundreds of people taking part but this year the programme have been cut short due to the death of three mountaineers who were killed while descending after scaling the peak.Â
On Sunday morning fewer people compared to the previous years gathered in front of the statue of Tenzing and showed their respect by garlanding the statue. The members of NAF were also present on the occasion. They observed one minute silence to pay homage to the three mountaineers who died in the expedition.Â
Everest has been a strong attraction for the mountaineers from across the world over the years. Some people return their homes after successfully scaling the Mount Everest while some others die in the process of climbing the summit.Â
Many of the climbers find a permanent place on the very lap of the Mount Everest after their death whose dead bodies could not be recovered. So the world’s highest peak has turned home for more than 200 climbers who have gone missing while in an expedition on it.Â
But despite of adverse situation Everest remains to be the favourite destination for the climbers and people with undaunted spirit give in to the irresistible call of nature.Â
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