China bans Everest climbing from Tibetan side

Kathmandu:  Chinese government has issued a ban on climbing Mt Everest from the Tibetan side this spring season citing reasons of escalating Covid-19 pandemic in the Everest region according to Xinhua news agency on Saturday.

The Chinese side put this ban on Everest climbs despite permits being given to 21 Chinese climbers for this spring. The climbing permits are reported to have been canceled following the spreading spree of the Covid-19 in recent days in Nepal.

China on last Sunday has also marked a demarcation line at the Everest summit in order to ward off the mixing of climbers from the Nepal side and from the Tibetan side as a precautionary measure.

These precautionary measures from Chinese side comes at a time when the media reports are galore about climbers returning from Mt Everest Base Camp being found infected with Covid-19 in the recent days.

It may be recalled that over 6,000 climbers have scaled Mt Everest ever since the first conquest by Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay in 1953.