May 10: The Nepalese Army has collected as many as 3,600 kilograms of solid waste from Myagdi-based Annapurna I.    
As part of the Clean Mountain Campaign spearheaded by the Nepalese Army, the waste matter was collected from Mt Annapurna I and its base camp.    
The 8,071-meter high Annapurna I lies in Annapurna Rural Municipality-4, Narchyang of Myagdi.    
Chief Administrative Officer of Annapurna Rural Municipality, Amrit Subedi said the NA's mountain cleaning team had started cleaning up Mt Annapurna on April 10 and returned on May 9.    
A team comprising 10 NA personnel and 13 from Peak Promotion Travel Agency had collected garbage from the mountain and the base camp for more than a month.    
NA mayor Gajendra Deuba had led the clean-up campaign. The army team along with Captain Bhim Bahadur Bhujel had reached atop the 8,091 meter high Annapurna peak and collected garbage there as well.
The waste collected include 1,200-kg biodegradable and 2,400-kg non-biodegradable waste, the team shared. The biodegradable waste has been managed at Bhusaket in the presence of the representatives of Annapurna Youth Club in Narchyang.    
The non-biodegradable waste was taken to Dana of Myagdi via a helicopter belonging to Prabhu Air.    
The waste airlifted to Dana from the Annapurna Base Camp was then sent to Kathmandu-based NA headquarters in a truck, shared Indra Siingh Sherchan, a local of Dana.    
The 2,400-kg wastes including plastics, tins, iron and lead were sent to Kathmandu.    
The clean-up was done in the Annapurna mountain and its base camp after 72 years since mountaineering was permitted, said Chairperson of Village Conservation Area Management Committee, Narchyang, Tej Gurung.    
“The waste was increasingly piling up in the mountain and base camp with the rise in the number of mountaineers and trekkers,” he said, adding, “The NA team cleaned up the Annapurna mountain for the first time.”    
Pokhara metropolis had extended financial support of Rs 1.5 million to the NA for the clean mountain campaign. NA has conducted 'Clean Mountain Campaign-2023' in Mount Annapurna, Sagarmatha, Lhotse and Barunche peaks.    
The 8,000-merter high Dhaualagiri and Manaslu mountains located in Gandaki province were cleaned earlier. The NA has initiated the campaign realizing the waste dumped in the mountain caused environmental imbalance and imparted a wrong message.    
The NA that started the campaign since 2019 had extracted 7,157 kilograms biodegradable waste from the Mount Everest, Lhotse, Manaslu and Kanchanjunga peaks last year. -- RSS