Everest height Increased

The world’s highest mountain’s height is increased by 86 Centimeters which was previously 8,848 Meters.

Nepal and China combinedly announced the revised height of Mt Everest on Tuesday ending all speculations about the height of the world’s highest peak after the massive earthquake of 2015.

“We are extremely pleased to make a joint announcement (with China) of the new height of Mt Everest, that is 8,848.86 meters,” Nepal’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Pradeep Gyawali said at the program in Kathmandu on Tuesday.

The former height of the mountain, 8848 metres, was measured in 1954 by Survey of India.

Foreign Minister Gyawali and Minister for Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation Padma Kumari Aryal announced the new height of Mt Everest by pressing a crystal ball.

Nepal and China had agreed to jointly announce the revised height during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit in 2019.

The government of Nepal had decided to measure the exact height of the summit amid emerging concerns that its height might have changed due to various reasons, including the 2015 earthquake.

A meeting of the Council of Ministers on November 25 this year had given the go-ahead for the announcement.

Nepal had started re-measuring the world’s tallest peak in 2017. Nepal’s survey team led by Khim Lal Gautam had climbed the Mt Everest on May 22, 2019, and installed the global positioning system (GPS) equipment and ground-penetrating radar at the peak.

The Survey Department under the Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation measured the height taking two years and spending Rs 130 million.

Likewise, China measured it in 2019.

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi expressed the happiness over the announcement saying, “China-Nepal relationship would strengthen further in the days to come.”

Nepal and China were at odds over the height of Mt Everest after the northern neighbour unilaterally announced the height of Everest as 8,844.04 meters in 2015, which was against the globally accepted height of 8,848 meters.

This is the first time that Nepal and China agreed to announce the height of the peak, ending controversies since it was first measured in 1849 by the British.

It should also be noted that Nepal had in 2011 announced to measure the peak’s height as a “national pride” project. However, the project did not move forward due to a lack of funds and internal political instability.

So far, as many as 6,507 mountaineers have successfully climbed Mt Everest from the Nepal side since Tenzing Norgay Sherpa and Edmund Hillary of New Zealand, first set foot atop the world’s highest peak in May 1953.

The Everest base camp trek is very popular for the trekkers who wish to see the Mt Everest and other mountains in the Everest Regions.