Nepal on Wednesday annulled the Everest summit documents of two climbers belonging to India for forging their 2016 scaling, and banned them and their squad leader from climbing in the country for the period of six years, officials told.
Narender Singh Yadav and Seema Rani Goswami said they touched the topmost of the world’s highest mountain mount Everest in spring season of 2016, and Nepal’s tourism department acknowledged their title at the time.
But disgrace erupted among Indian climbers after Yadav was recorded for the significant Tenzing Norgay Adventure Award last year, prompting an inquiry.
Tourism Ministry spokesperson Tara Nath Adhikari told AFP their inquiries and investigations with other climbers discovered that the two climbers “never reached the summit”.
“They couldn’t present any proof of their climb to the peak, they even botched to succumb trustworthy snaps of them at the summit,” Adhikari said.
The two climbers and their crew leader Naba Kumar Phukon have been disqualified from climbing Nepal’s peaks for six years, beginning retroactively from May 2016.
Seven Summit Hikes, which organised the journey, has been charged Rs50,000 (US $450) and their subsidiary Sherpa has been charged Rs10,000 (US $85).
Standing at the top of the 8,848-metre mountain adds a star to a mountaineer’s resume, and many go on to fake occupations as motivational talkers and writers.
The existing system strains photographs, and reports from team frontrunners and government association officers posted at the base camp — but it has been open to endeavors at fakery.
In 2016, another Indian couple were banned for 10 years after they falsified photographs claiming to show them at the top of Everest.
The pair — both police constables — overlaid themselves and their banners onto photos taken by another Indian climber Satyarup Siddhanta at the peak.
Nepal is home to eight of the world’s 14 top peaks and foreign mountaineers are a major basis of income.
The pandemic hit right before the start of the eventful climbing season last year, finishing the industry, but mountaineers are now slowly flooding back into the country.
Yadav, Goswami and Phukon were yet to comment publicly following Wednesday’s declaration.
Mingma Sherpa from Seven Summit Hikes said: “It is a virtuous verdict from the government authorities and a caution to others. Back then, everyone had said that they touched the summit so we testified it. But the mountaineering industry is based on conviction and we must maintain it.”
