Nepal’s airlines have suspended helicopter flights in the Everest region due to controversy over the impact of their operations on the environment and hikers, authorities announced Monday.
Due to the lack of passable roads, helicopters constitute an essential means of transport in the valleys and slopes of the Himalayas, particularly in cases of emergency.
But with the rise of Himalayan tourism, “comfort” rotations around peaks have increased significantly in recent years, notably in Sagarmatha National Park which hosts the world’s highest peak.
For a thousand dollars, a flight allows you to reach Everest base camp in one day, avoiding a two-week approach walk.
The Association of Airline Operators of Nepal (AOAN) lists around fifteen per day on average, up to around sixty during the peak of the tourist season.
Far too much for the park authorities, who have decided to ban purely tourist flights from this month of January.
“It is a geologically very sensitive area, low altitude helicopter flights disrupt the environment and jobs since they keep hikers away,” park curator Sushma Rana told AFP.
Young people in the region expressed their anger recently by deploying flag barriers at helicopter landing zones and even threatening their pilots.
For security reasons, AOAN has therefore decided to ground all its devices.
“We have suspended all flights in the Everest region until the government guarantees the safety of pilots and a site for emergency landings,” the vice-president of the Everest explained to AFP. organism, Pratap Jung Pandey.
“We will hold discussions to resolve this issue,” promised a local official, Laxman Adhikari.
More than 50,000 tourists visit the Everest region every year.
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