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Seventy years ago, New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Nepali Tenzing Norgay Sherpa became the first humans to summit Sagarmatha on 29 May 1953. The British expedition made the two men household names around the world and changed mountaineering forever. Hundreds now climb the 8,849-meter (29,032-foot) peak every year, fuelling concerns of overcrowding and pollution on the mountain. AFP looks at the evolution of the Sagarmatha phenomenon. What is the mountain called? Initially known only to British mapmakers as Peak XV, the mountain was identified as the world’s highest point in the 1850s and renamed in 1865 after Sir George Everest, a former Surveyor General of India. On the border of Nepal and China and climbable from both sides, it is called Chomolungma or Qomolangma in Sherpa and Tibetan—‘goddess mother of the world’—and Sagarmatha in Nepali, meaning ‘peak of the sky’. How has climbing Sagarmatha changed? The 1953 expedition was the ninth attempt on the summit and it took 20 years for the first 600 people to climb it. Now that number can be expected in a single season, with climbers catered to by experienced guides and commercial expedition companies. The months-long journey to the base camp was cut to eight days with the construction of a small mountain airstrip in 1964 in the town of Lukla, the gateway to the Sagarmatha region. Gear is lighter, oxygen supplies are more readily available, and tracking devices make expeditions safer. Climbers today can summon a helicopter in case of emergency. Every season, experienced Nepali guides set the route all the way to the summit for paying clients to follow. But Billi Bierling of Himalayan Database, an archive of mountaineering expeditions, said some things remain similar: “They didn’t go to the mountains much different than we do now. The Sherpas carried everything. The expedition style itself hasn’t changed.” What is base camp like? The starting point for climbs proper, Sagarmatha Base Camp was once little more than a collection of tents at 5,364 meters (17,598 feet), where climbers lived off canned foods. Now fresh salads, baked goods and trendy coffee are available, with crackly conversations over bulky satellite phones replaced by wifi and Instagram posts. How does the news of a summit travel? Hillary and Tenzing summited Sagarmatha on May 29 but it only appeared in newspapers on June 2, the day of Queen Elizabeth’s coronation: the news had to be brought down the mountain on foot to a telegraph station in the town of Namche Bazaar, to be relayed to the British Embassy in Kathmandu. In 2011, British climber Kenton Cool tweeted from the summit with a 3G signal after his ninth successful ascent. More usually, walkie-talkie radios are standard expedition equipment and summiteers contact their base camp teams, who swiftly post on social media. In 2020, China announced 5G connectivity at the Sagarmatha summit. What are the effects of climate change? Warming temperatures are slowly widening crevasses on the mountain and bringing running water to previously snowy slopes. A 2018 study of Sagarmatha's Khumbu glacier indicated it was vulnerable to even minor atmospheric warming, with the temperature of shallow ice already close to melting point. “The future of the Khumbu icefall is bleak,” its principal investigator, glaciologist Duncan Quincey, told AFP. “The striking difference is the meltwater on the surface of the glaciers.” Three Nepali guides were killed on the formation this year when a chunk of falling glacial ice swept them into a deep crevasse. It has become a popular cause for climbers to highlight, and expedition companies are starting to implement eco-friendly practices at their camps, such as solar power. What is the impact of social media? Click, post, repeat—the climbing season plays out on social media as excited mountaineers document their journey to Sagarmatha on Facebook, Instagram and other social media platforms. Hashtags keep their sponsors happy and the posts can catch the eyes of potential funders. That applies to both foreign climbers and their now tech-savvy Nepali guides. “Everyone posts nowadays, it is part of how we share and build our profile,” said Lakpa Dendi Sherpa, who has submitted Sagarmatha multiple times and has 62,000 Instagram followers. Mountain of records? Veteran Nepali guides Kami Rita Sherpa and Pasang Dawa Sherpa both scaled Sagarmatha twice this season, with the latter twice matching the former’s record number of summits before Kami Rita reclaimed pole position with 28. There are multiple Sagarmatha record categories for first and fastest feats of endurance. But some precedents are more quixotic: in 2018, a team of British climbers, an Australian and a Nepali dressed in tuxedos and gowns for the world’s highest dinner party at 7,056 meters on the mountain’s Chinese side. AFP

At least 50 persons were injured when police and groups protesting against the renaming of Province 1 as Koshi clashed near Koshi Province Assembly building in Biratnagar on Sunday. According to the police, 38 security personnel and 12 protesters were injured in the clash. It has been learnt that 23 Nepali Police and 15 Armed Police Force (APF) personnel were injured in the incident. Police said that the number of injured from both sides may increase. “The details of all the injured have not been received as it is in the early stage,” police said. All the injured are undergoing treatment in various hospitals of Biratnagar. A source said that police fired 16 rounds of bullets in the air and also lobbed 61 teargas shells to take the situation under control. Police said that they were attacked with stones, batons and bottles. The situation near the Province Assembly building and other places has returned to normal. Police have also arrested 24 persons, who played a role to incite the protest, from the incident site. Prior to that, 37 persons were apprehended. The second and budget session of the Koshi Province Assembly was called at 2 pm today.  

The District Administration Office, Sunsari, has issued a total of 12,177 new citizenship certificates in the first nine months of the current fiscal year, Chief District Officer Humkala Pandey confirmed. Likewise, altogether 11,339 duplicate copies of the citizenship certificates were also issued during the same period in the current fiscal year. Similarly, the administration has provided 11,309 passport copies during the review period. CDO Pandey said that a total of Rs 2 million plus has been distributed in relief from the District Administration Office during the period. According to CDO Pandey, the administration carried out monitoring of market, public entities and security bodies as well. However, monitoring of the development projects could not take place so far in the current fiscal year. In the district, 112 new organizations have been registered while 426 other organizations obtained their renewal certificate, according to CDO Pandey.

The public transport fare has decreased in Bagmati Province, including in the Kathmandu Valley. The Ministry of Labor, Employment and Transport has reduced the fare, nine days after Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) slashed the price of diesel. The Ministry has decreased the fare of public transport vehicles operating on short routes within the Bagmati Province. The reduced transport fare has been published in the Nepal Gazette. According to the public transport latest fare determined by the Ministry, the fare has been decreased by 5.9 percent in the Kathmandu Valley, and by 4.18 percent in public vehicles and by 5.69 percent in goods-carrier vehicles operating in short routes in places outside the Valley, said Asman Tamang, Secretary at the Ministry. "The reduced public transport fare would come into effect from today itself as it has already been published in the Gazette," he said. The transport entrepreneurs had determined the fare on their own before this as the public transport fare of vehicles operating on short routes was not increased even as the price of diesel went up. The public transport fare of only vehicles operating on long routes was increased at that time. NOC had reduced the price of diesel effective from Wednesday last week. Immediately after this, the government had increased the public transport fare on vehicles operating on long routes. The transport fare of long route or inter-province is determined by the federal government while that of the short route or inter-municipality is fixed by the province government. The NOC on April 3 slashed the price of diesel and kerosene by Rs 10 each per liter and petrol by Rs 3 per liter. It reduced the price of diesel and petrol by Rs 10 each per liter effective from last Wednesday. As per the reduced fuel price, diesel costs Rs 155 per liter. The transport fare of public transport vehicles operated in short route within the province was increased last year. As per the increased transport fare, passengers are charged Rs 20 upon boarding the public bus in Kathmandu Valley.