Nepal measured Everest over two years, now China is to join the fray
NEPAL has spent the past two years diligently measuring Mount Everest and, now the process is almost complete, China is to jointly announce the mountain’s official height, much to the surprise of officials at Nepal’s Ministry of Land Reform and Management and the Survey Department.
During Chinese President Xi Jinping’s most recent state visit, Nepal and China agreed to recognise that “Mount Sagarmatha/Zhumulangma is an eternal symbol of the friendship between Nepal and China”, and that they would “jointly announce the height of Mount Sagarmatha/Zhumulangma and conduct scientific research”, a joint statement said.
However, officials at the ministry tasked with measuring Everest told the Kathmandu Post that they were unaware China would be involved in the announcement.
Ten days since the signing of the joint agreement, neither the ministry nor the department has received any official communication from the office of Nepalese Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding China’s involvement, according to top officials.
Oli’s foreign relations adviser Rajan Bhattarai told the Post that Minister for Land Reform Padma Aryal and Secretary Surya Prasad Gautam were very much aware of the proposal prior to the agreement. However, Gautam provided an evasive response.
“I am also in the process of being briefed by officials from the ministry and the Survey Department. I cannot say anything about this at the moment. Please contact the ministry spokesperson,” Gautam told the Post.
Spokesperson Janak Raj Joshi, however, said he was unaware of what the agreement with China entails.
“We do not know how this agreement was made, and since the agreement was signed, there has been no communication from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“What we do know is our Survey Department is conducting the measurement of Everest and has completed its data collection. The data analysis is currently ongoing and it will take another two months to reach a preliminary conclusion,” Joshi said.
The department began measuring the height of Everest around two years ago using sophisticated methodology including readings from groundpenetrating radar and a global navigation satellite system from the top of the mountain.
Officials from the department reached the top of Everest on May 22 to take the measurements. Those readings will be corroborated with nearly 300 readings from a gravimeter, which measures the gravitational force of the earth at various points, and a traditional trigonometrical survey, the method that was used in the 1950s to calculate the height.
The department has spent $1.3 million on the endeavour, working alongside six international firms.
The Survey Department said it too had yet to be contacted by the Foreign Ministry about a joint announcement of the height with China.
“We do not know about the details of the agreement and are waiting for formal communication from higher authorities,” said Prakash Joshi, the department’s director-general.
Joshi said his department had had a difficult time setting up measurement stations at heights of above 5,000m in the absence of experts and instruments.
A Swiss company donated various scientific instruments and technology worth $700,000, which greatly helped Nepali surveyors conduct the measurement, he said.
“When we reach a conclusion, we will conduct a workshop for experts from several countries and announce the new height,” department spokesperson Baburam Dhakal said.
There is hope that China’s participation in the announcement will conclusively determine Everest’s height and that Beijing will drop its competing claim from 2015 of 8,844.43m.
Nepal and China have disagreed over the mountain’s height. The universally accepted figure is 8,848m. But after earthquakes in 2015, geologists believe Everest may have shrunk.
Several international institutions and India had expressed their interest in measuring the height of Everest. However, Nepal decided to perform the survey on its own, for the first time in history, designating the plan a “national pride” project.
“This measurement is important to us,” said the Survey Department’s Dhakal.
“We are measuring it with our own resources and the world is keenly watching its final outcome.”