By Vinaya Shakya
Nepal, a beautiful country bestowed with lofty snow peaks and high hills, attracts to large number of visitors from around the world. Nepal is famous for adventure sports and mountain tourism. Around 22% of total tourist arrival in Nepal love to trek in hilly regions and climb the Himalayas. Mountain tourism has been one of the major source of foreign exchange earnings and employment generator in Nepal.
Mountain climbing involves highs risk yet high satisfaction when one achieves success in his/her venture. It requires dedication, motivation, patience and of course, favorable weather. Weather plays an important role in the success of any climbing team and even for enjoying holidays for trekkers and mountaineers.
A number of people have lost their lives in the Himalayas due to unfavorable weather conditions. We can recall the tragic Gokyo (4,700m.) accident of 1995 November 11, which had took the life of 16 Japanese, 3 Canadian, 1 German, 1 Irish and 39 Nepalese.
During that incident HMG had formed a 9 member team for rescue and relief operation under the chairmanship of the then acting Director General of Department of Tourism including representatives from various tourism organizations, the army and police. This team left no stone unturned for the success of whole rescue operation. Royal Nepalese Army, Nepal Police and some professional mountain climbers had also made great effort on field operation and coordination with the national team.
They were able to rescue 241 foreigners and 297 Nepalese from Khumbu and Manang regions in 6 days from 11 Novato 16 Nov. 1995.
Although no one can avoid natural calamities/disasters, the incident was a lesson for the necessity to be prepared for such emergencies. Since then Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA) felt the need to form a Mountain Rescue Committee for such emergencies.
It was first time in July 5, 1999 the first official meeting of Mountain Rescue Committee was held in Nepal Mountaineering Association premises. A team was formed under the convenorship of Mr. Lhakpa Dorje Sherpa, an executive member of NMA and an enthusiast mountaineer, including world record holder Everest summiteer Babu Chhiri Sherpa, Dr. Lekh Raj Subedi and two other tourism professionals Mr. Rinji Norbu Sherpa and Mr. Da Gombu Sherpa. It was unfortunate that one of the world record holder member Mr. Babu Chhiri Sherpa of this committee passed away in an accident in the Himalayas last year.
This committee had to start from zero level of the rescue work. This team started research into the causes of accidents in the mountain region and found that most of such incidents in the Himalayas occur because of the absence of communication link up. So the team decided to have communication network in the popular trekking and mountain region.
The team was looking for variety of walkie-talkie and radio sets and finally decided to buy Motorola radio sets with repeater system. The first target of networking in Khumbu region has to leave behind due to present situation in Nepal. Hence, the team decided to start working with walkie-talkie handsets.
It was obvious that without proper training no person can work smoothly and efficiently when an emergency occurs. So the team decided to start providing training on Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) for the first time to non-medical people i.e. 10 professional climbers in Nepal.
During this training, the trainees were imparted knowledge as how to use Gamow Bag (pressure altitude chamber for high altitude sickness), CPR and first aid in emergency and during accidents. Now, NMA, Mountain Rescue Committee has two Gamow Bags and 14 walkie-talkie sets to be used for rescue operations.
This committee is looking for regular volunteer trainers from around the world to share new technology and ideas for rescue and relief operations. This team believes in the proverb that “Prevention is always better than cure”. It welcomes any assistance from around the world for this humanitarian rescue task.
The future plan of the team is to establish the most demanded standby rescue operators for emergency in Nepal, says the convener of Mountain Rescue Committee of NMA, Mr. Lhakpa Dorje Sherpa. It also welcomes volunteer instructors and services from around the world.
Source: Nepal Prabat
sheel
Aakrist
Culture Nepal
