Nepal, China disagree on height Everest, signing of boundary protocol delayed

By Bhola B Rana

Kathmandu, 16 July: Nepal and China—who share Mount Everest, the world’s tallest peak—disagree on the height of the peak delaying the signing of the fourth boundary protocol, a Nepali boundary expert said.
“The third joint committee I working for more than four years. But the work has not yet been completed to sign the fourth boundary protocol. It has created a curiosity why the work has been pending,” writes Buddhi Narayan Shrestha, former director general of Survey Department in an article entitled ‘3rd joint inspection in the process in Republica Friday.
‘It has created a curiosity why has the work been pending?” Shrestha asks on the delay.
Shrestha speculates ‘the co-called dual heights of Mount Sagarmatha [Nepali name of Everest] may have caused the delay.
“As far as the height of Sagarmatha (Qomolongma, Everest) is concerned, China has proposed to mention it at 8,844.47 meters, as they have declared the height of Sagarmatha to have decreased by 3.53 meters.
“They established the new height in 2005, deducting the thickness of the ice on the top of Sagarmatha. But Nepal is neither willing to accept the lowered height, nor the new height of the 8,850 meters determined in 1999 by America.
“During joint discussions, China proposed to mention on map two heights of a single peak, that of Sagarmatha, as the Chinese height (8844m) without the thickness of ice, and the traditional Nepali height (8,848m) with ice.
‘Regarding two heights of the same summit, Nepal may have been confused whether or not to accept the Chinese proposal. This is one of the reasons to have prolonged the joint boundary committee’s duration,” Shrestha adds.
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SPORTS

Nepal gains in FIFA ranking

Kathmandu, 16 July: Nepal gained five places in July’s FIFA world soccer rankings and has been placed 156 among football playing nations.
World Cup champion Spain is on top.
Nepal was ranked 161 in June.
India is the top South Asian soccer nation.
Nepal is placed above Pakistan, Bhutan and Afghanistan in South Asia.
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