Nepal cabinet meeting to be held on Mount Everest

BY Rajneesh Bhandari

After Maldives organized historical cabinet meeting under water, Nepal has announced that it will organize a cabinet meeting at the base camp of Mount Everest — the highest peak of the world to draw global attention about climate change. Though Maldives organized the meeting on October 17, Nepal has set a special date for the ministerial meeting. It is the 11th day of the 11th month and if the numbers of the year 2009 are also summed up it will be 11. There are chances that the meeting will also start at 11 in the morning. Deepak Bohara, the forest and soil conservation minister who is coordinating the event says “It is just a co-incidence and but I believe the fate of Nepal is very strong, that’s why we are organizing such a big event.” I had asked him if the government consulted with an astrologer regarding the dates, he answered “No”. Prime Minister and other ministers will meet at a base camp at 5,300 metres where mountaineers begin their final ascent of Everest. Minister Bohara told me that doctors and oxygen will be made available at the spot. Ministers have started taking suggestions from the mountaineers and doctors about the do’s and don’ts in the high altitude. All the cabinet ministers will fly to the base camp at eight in the morning on November 11 by helicopter. However the whole event will not be funded by the government. Minister Bohara told that the cost of meeting will be covered by different organization that are working in the filed of environment and climate change. The meeting will endorse the declaration that is going to be presented at the “Summiteers’ Summit” at Copenhagen on Dec. 11, 2009 to raise the awareness of impacts of climate change in the Himalayas. Nepal will declare it a green zone and ask international support for this declaration.Pic: Everestnews.com