Cleaning expedition team digs up two bodies In a major cleaning campaign of Mt Everest, Ken Noguchi Lhotse South Col Cleaning Expedition (SCCE) team successfully dug up two tons of frozen garbage from 8000 metres high South Col from April 14 to May 22. Dead bodies of an unidentified Nepali and an Indian male identified as Dr Kulkarni were also dug up and buried underneath the stones at South Col. Dr Kulkarni had participated with Indian women’s expedition team in 1992. The garbage has been brought to the city and part of it is being sent to Japan and Korea for display. In the garbage collecting process that cost around $ 4000, a tumbler dating back to 1951 and a gas cylinder estimated to be 50 years old have been found. The entire procedure has also been documented in a 15 minute film. Mountaineers at a press conference here on Monday organised by Asian Trekking raised serious concerns of environmental pollution in the highly scaled mountains in the country, where mountaineers dump wastes such as oxygen cylinders and tents. Ken Noguchi, the leader of SCCE pointed out that the mountaineers should cooperate with the Nepali Government by bringing back their waste. “Since the government charges Rs 70,000 per group of mountain climbers, out of that, it could pay about $20 to a porter for bringing back the waste from the mountains,” said Noguchi who is also a vice-president of International Mountaineers Association (IMA) formed last November in Georgia. Another major factor contributing to the rising pollution in the mountains, is excessive paraphernalia of the climbers. The climbers are required to list out their belongings including oxygen cylinders, to the government before venturing into the expedition. But the government officials do not check the luggage, whereby the expedition team could take more luggage than the stated figure, Noguchi pointed out emphasising the need to build a strong checking mechanism. The team aims to clean up Mt Manaslu and Mt Everest in the following spring, 2003 as its next project. SCCE pointed out that Manaslu, recently scaled by the Japanese for the first time, has been polluted with the garbage. Gia Tortladze, president of IMA and also part of the SCCE team said that the base camp of Manaslu is mainly littered with rubbish. It was also pointed out at the programme that the mountain groups climbing famous peaks consciously avoid disposing garbage but other less famous mountains face the problems of garbage. The team led by Noguchi plans to carry out clean-up expeditions every year in different mountains in the country and extending its project in other parts of the world is also in the offing. The nine member SCCE team included Ken Noguchi, Masayuki Takahata, Noriyuki Muraguchi and Sadasumi Yoshimura from Japan, Lee Sang Bae, Choi Byoung Woo and Jim Jae Soo from Korea, Gia Tortladze and Zura Astakhisuili from Georgia. The entire team consisted of 37 members including the cameraman, climbing Sherpas and cooks. Tortladze, Bae, Soo, Woo also scaled Mt Lhotse after the cleaning event.