Limits on tourists to Everest to protect environment

Tibet is planning to limit the number of tourists and mountain climbers to Mount Everest (Mount Qomolangma) to protect its ecology, a top environmental official said.

Zhang Yongze, director of the Tibet Autonomous Region Environmental Protection Bureau, said that the growing number of visitors to the world's highest peak makes protecting the environment a tough job.

About 40,000 tourists visited the mountain last year, less than 10 percent of the number that visited the Nepal side of the mountain. However, environmentalists estimate that the visitors left behind as much as 120 tons of garbage.

Mount Everest is being called “the highest garbage dump in the world” because of the growing number of visitors on the Nepal side and the low environmental concern of many of them, China Daily claims.

To prevent the same fate from happening to the Chinese side of the mountain, the Environmental Protection Bureau in Tibet has set up two garbage collection points near Rongbuk Monastery.

Since 2003, the Bureau has also prevented motor vehicles from venturing beyond Rongbuk monastery. Tourists and mountaineers are brought to higher altitudes by animal-drawn carriages. The scheme has the dual benefit of lessening carbon emission and generating employment for local people.

The bureau plans to begin a garbage collection campaign in the first half of next year. It has not announced a date when travel restrictions to the area will take effect.