Kathmandu, January 24
India says it will soon “re-measure” the height of Mount Everest, 162 years after its surveyors stepped on world’s highest mountain.
“We are sending an expedition to Mount Everest. Everest height was declared, if I remember correctly, in 1855. Many others also measured it. But height given by Survey of India, even today, is taken as the correct height. It is 29,028 ft. We are re-measuring it.
“Two years have passed since the major Nepal earthquake. After that, there is a doubt in the scientific community that it is shrinking. That is one of the reasons. Second reason is, it helps in scientific studies, plate movements etc,” India’s surveyor general of India Swarna Subba Rao told PTI on the sidelines of the World Spatial Forum conference in Hyderabad.
He said that necessary approvals have been obtained for the expedition.
“I have got all the approvals. If the Surveyor General of Nepal has come here (for the conference in Hyderabad), I will have a meeting with him. As I see it, we plan to send (the expedition team) in two months,” he was quoted as saying.
