Category Archives: Nepal

Everest climbers prepare to pick up their own poo as season gets under way

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Authorities are now mandating that climbers remove their waste from the mountain using biodegradable bags

It’s one of the more unedifying challenges involved in scaling to the highest point on Earth – how best to relieve oneself in the freezing, inhospitable environment of Mount Everest.

That question is about to become slightly more complicated as climbers prepare for a change in protocol when the season gets under way next month, with a new rule about removing their own faeces as they trek up and down the mountain.

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Nepal bans citizens from working in Russia or Ukraine after deaths in military

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Work permits to leave Nepal for those countries halted as 10 men killed and dozens more reported missing

The government of Nepal has banned its citizens from travelling to Russia or Ukraine for employment after 10 young men were killed and dozens more reported missing while fighting, predominately in the Russian military.

More than 200 Nepali soldiers are believed to have enlisted in the Russian army since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Nepal’s foreign ministry had said, and more than 100 of them have gone missing. A smaller number are believed to be fighting in the Ukrainian army.

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Nepal earthquake survivors dying in tents as temperatures plunge

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At least 38 people, including a new mother, have died in the month after the earthquake struck, among 40,000 people living under tarpaulin

At least 38 people who survived an earthquake in Nepal have died after spending more than a month living in tents in freezing temperatures. Among the dead is a woman who gave birth two days after the earthquake struck the west of the country on 3 November.

More than 40,000 people are now living under sheets of tarpaulin, according to the directorate of health for Karnali province.

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‘We can have a beautiful future now’: Nepal’s first legally married same-sex couple celebrates

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After months of legal challenges Maya Gurung and Surendra Pandey registered their marriage, giving hope to other same-sex couples in the south Asian country

The dancing continued until the early hours. Family and friends – and Suru the dog – gathered in western Nepal to mark the joyful end to what had been a historic day for Maya Gurung and Surendra Pandey. On Wednesday, they became the first same-sex couple in south Asia to have their marriage legally recognised.

“Finally, we are completely together, finally we are completely each other’s, finally we can perform each other’s funeral if we die tomorrow,” Gurung, 37, a transgender woman, says as the couple sit in the register office in rural Dordi municipality, where she was born.

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LGBTQ+ couple in Nepal are first in south Asia to be legally married

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Rights activists say marriage of Maya Gurung, a transgender woman, and Surendra Pandey is ‘historic day’

An LGBTQ+ couple in Nepal have said they want to “scream to the world that we are husband and wife at last” after becoming the first in south Asia to have their marriage legally recognised.

Maya Gurung, 38, a transgender woman, and Surendra Pandey, 27, were given a legal certificate in Nepal’s Lamjung district on Wednesday.

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Nepal says it will ban TikTok, citing effect on ‘social harmony’

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Minister for communications and information technology says the popular video-sharing platform ‘disrupts family structures’

Nepal has said it will ban TikTok, citing negative effects on the country’s “social harmony”.

The popular video-sharing platform, which has around a billion monthly users, has faced restrictions in many countries for alleged breaches of data rules and for the potentially harmful impact on youth of some content.

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Search for survivors in western Nepal after earthquake kills at least 157 people

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Rescue workers reach area near epicentre of 5.8-magnitude quake in Karnali province in country’s worst earthquake since 2015

Rescue workers in Nepal began digging through the rubble of collapsed houses with their bare hands on Saturday, searching for survivors after the country’s worst earthquake in eight years killed 157 people and shook buildings as far away as Delhi.

The 5.6-magnitude quake hit the far west of the Himalayan country late on Friday and was measured by the US Geological Survey at just 11 miles (18km) deep.

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‘I was helpless’: Nepali survivors of Hamas attack in Israel haunted by trauma

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Ten Nepali students died at kibbutz, leaving families for whom they were breadwinners bereft

Dhanbahadur Chaudhari now dreams of rivers of blood. Although he returned home to Nepal this week, flashes of the scenes he left behind in Israel won’t leave him alone, and for days he has barely been able to sleep.

Chaudhari, 25, was among almost 50 students from Nepal who were staying on a kibbutz in Alumim, the border area between Israel and Gaza, when it came under attack from Hamas militants on 7 October. Since the current conflict broke out that day, at least 4,200 people have died in Israel and Palestine.

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Rhino numbers rebound as global figures reveal a win for conservation

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Tally rises to 27,000 but is still a far cry from former half a million, and Javan and Sumatran rhino remain critically endangered

Global rhinoceros numbers have increased to 27,000 despite populations being ravaged by poaching and habitat loss, new figures show, with some species rebounding for the first time in a decade.

Rhinos numbered about 500,000 across Africa and Asia in the 20th century but their populations have been devastated. Last year, they began showing signs of recovery in some areas, although two species – the Javan and Sumatran – remain close to disappearing.

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Himalayan avalanches are increasing risk for climbers in warming climate

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Experts warn that global heating is exacerbating inherent dangers of high altitude mountaineering

Avalanches in the Himalayas are causing an increasing number of deaths and threatening the safety of climbers, research suggests.

While high-altitude mountaineering comes with an inherent avalanche risk, global heating is exacerbating the danger during the climbing season in the Himalayan mountain range, experts warn.

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Teenage girl dies after being forced to stay in a ‘period hut’ in Nepal

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Campaigners say efforts to stamp out custom of banishing girls and women during menstruation have been set back by Covid

A 16-year-old girl from Nepal has died as a result of the illegal practice of chhaupadi, where menstruating women are forced to stay in huts outside their homes.

Anita Chand, from Baitadi district, in the west of the country, bordering India, is understood to have died on Wednesday from a snake bite while she was sleeping. Her death is the first reported fatality from chhaupadi since 2019 and campaigners fear progress to eliminate the practice is being eroded.

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Six dead as tourist helicopter crashes in Everest region of Nepal

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Nepali pilot and five Mexican passengers killed after aircraft crashes soon after takeoff near Lukla

All six people onboard a tourist helicopter in Nepal have been killed after it crashed soon after takeoff in the Everest region.

The Manang Air flight was heading for the capital, Kathmandu, from near Lukla, a gateway for climbing expeditions to the world’s highest peak, with five Mexican tourists – two men and three women – and a Nepali pilot onboard.

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Nepali sherpa saves climber in rare Everest ‘death zone’ rescue

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Gelje Sherpa was guiding Chinese client to summit when he saw Malaysian climber clinging to rope

A Malaysian climber narrowly survived after a Nepali sherpa guide hauled him down from below the summit of Mount Everest in a very rare high-altitude rescue, a government official has said.

Gelje Sherpa, 30, was guiding a Chinese client to the 8,849-metre (29,032ft) Everest summit on 18 May when he saw the Malaysian climber clinging to a rope and shivering from extreme cold in the area known as the death zone, where temperatures can dip to -30C or lower.

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Climate change to blame for up to 17 deaths on Mount Everest, experts say

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Nepal’s head of tourism says variable weather on the mountain has led to one of the deadliest years on record

Experts say this is likely to be one of the deadliest years on record on Mount Everest, with variable weather caused by climate change being blamed as one of the main reasons for the deaths of up to 17 people.

A total of 12 people have now been confirmed dead during Everest expeditions this season and another five are missing, presumed dead, as no contact has been made for at least five days in all cases, according to the Himalayan Database, which tracks mountain fatalities.

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Australian climber Jason Kennison dies on Mount Everest while returning from summit

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Forty-year-old, who was raising money for Spinal Cord Injuries Australia, spent years recovering from a spinal injury after being told he might never walk again

An Australian man who climbed Mount Everest after learning to walk again has died on his return from the summit.

Jason Bernard Kennison died on Friday. His family said “he achieved his goal of reaching the peak … he stood on top of this world but sadly didn’t come home.”

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Spanish climber, 84, injured in bid to be oldest to scale world’s 14 highest peaks

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Carlos Soria forced to abandon ascent of Nepal’s Dhaulagiri, one of two 8,000-metre summits he is still to conquer

An 84-year-old Spanish mountaineer has been forced to abandon his 15th attempt to reach the summit of Nepal’s Dhaulagiri – one of the two “8,000ers” he had left to climb to claim the title of the oldest climber to conquer the world’s 14 highest mountains.

A Sherpa fell on Carlos Soria, injuring his leg, a message posted on his behalf on his Twitter and Facebook accounts said.

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Nepali sherpa scales summit of Mount Everest for record 27th time

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‘Strong climber’ Kami Rita Sherpa beats own record for number of ascents on world’s highest mountain

A Nepali sherpa has scaled Mount Everest for a record 27th time, beating his own record, a government official and his hiking company said.

Kami Rita Sherpa, 53, scaled the 8,849-metre (29,032ft) mountain early on Wednesday morning along the traditional south-east ridge route, guiding a foreign climber.

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UK secretly deported 100 Nepali guards who protected staff in Kabul

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Exclusive: People who risked their lives and were evacuated to Britain were forcibly removed to Nepal days later

More than 100 Nepali guards who risked their lives to protect British embassy staff in Afghanistan before the Taliban seized back control were secretly returned to Nepal against their wishes shortly after being airlifted to safety in the UK, the Guardian can reveal.

Hundreds of Nepali nationals and a smaller number of Indian nationals who protected key institutions in Kabul were brought to the UK on an RAF flight during the chaotic evacuation of the Afghan capital by western countries in August 2021, as victorious Taliban forces closed in.

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Last remaining Gurkha Victoria Cross recipient dies in Nepal aged 83

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Rambahadur Limbu was awarded Britain’s highest military honour in 1966 for an act of gallantry

The last remaining Gurkha recipient of Britain’s Victoria Cross has died in Nepal at the age of 83.

Rambahadur Limbu was awarded Britain’s highest military decoration by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace in 1966 for gallantry during an attack on Indonesian troops on the island of Borneo during which he rescued two fellow soldiers.

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Northern Irish man dies and Indian man missing on Annapurna climb in Nepal

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Noel Hanna died during descent of world’s 10th highest mountain, say expedition organisers

A Northern Irish climber has died and an Indian climber is missing after falling into a crevasse in separate incidents on Mount Annapurna, the world’s 10th highest mountain.

Another Indian climber fell ill on the way down from the 8,091-metre (26,540ft) summit but survived after spending the night in harsh conditions on the mountain.

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