By Chhetu Sherpa, Kathmandu, Mar. 17: A 13-member team has left for basecamp of Mt. Everest in order to carry out cleaning campaign of the highest mountain in the world.

The team will reach the basecamp within three days, informed Babu Sherpa, Managing Director of the Peak Promotion Trekking Agency, the company that won the bid to clean the basecamp as announced by the Nepali Army (NA).

The government has planned to collect garbage from six mountains involving 69 mountain guides this year and allocated necessary budget for the same.

Nepali army has been entrusted with the task.

Some 35 tons of garbage will be collected from six Himalayas namely, Sagarmatha (Mt. Everest), Lhotse, Pumori, Makalu, Aama Dablam and Dhaulagiri in the months of May and June when mountain climbing starts, according to the NA.

Aditi Karki, a major of NA who is nodal person for garbage collection campaign, said that preparations were made to collect and bring back some 18 tons in between basecamp and the last camp while 17 tons around the basecamps.

He said that it was for the first time that garbage was going to be collected from the last camp of a mountain. He said that dead bodies, if found while collecting garbage, would also be brought down to the basecamp for disposal.

In addition to 69 mountain guides, 43 NA personnel would collect the waste from all the six mountains. Only those NA personnel who have summited mountains with over six thousand meter height will be involved in the team which will also have medical as well as communications personnel.

Minister of Forest and Environment has allocated Rs. 100 million for garbage collection in the mountains. The ministry has entrusted the NA with the task along with the budget.  

Earlier, a joint team of Nepal Mountaineering Association and the NA had collected garbage from the basecamp of Mt. Everest some two years ago.