The Survey of India is ready to re-measure the height of Mt. Everest to determine if the world’s tallest mountain got really shrunk following a devastating earthquake in Nepal two years ago.
A team of researchers from the Survey of India are all set to depart to Nepal in two months to conduct the exercise that comes in the backdrop of doubts expressed by section of the scientific community about the shrinking of the towering mountain peak. Mount Everest officially stands at 8,848 meters (29,028 feet) above sea level.
The project, for which required sanctions have been obtained, would help the future scientific studies as well, Surveyor General of India Swarna Subba Rao said here today.
He also said that they are sending an expedition to Mt. Everest and the height of the Mt. Everest was declared in 1855. Many other research teams have also determined the height of Mt. Everest. But the height given by the ‘Survey of India’ is taken as the correct height, which is 29,028 ft, Rao said.
Almost two years have passed since the disastrous earthquake in Nepal. After the earthquake there are doubts in the scientific community that the mountain is shrinking. That is one of the reasons and the second reason is that it would help in the scientific studies of plate movements and etc., he said.
Rao said that he has got all the approvals and the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) is also done. The Surveyor General of Nepal has come for the conference in Hyderabad.
He also said, that he will have a meeting with the Surveyor General of Nepal and will plan to send the team of researchers within two months.
The endeavor would take about a month for observation and another 15 days for computation and declaration of data, Rao added.
Rao told to the Press Trust of India (PTI) that this time they will be measuring height of Mt. Everest by two methods-- using Global Positioning System (GPS) and a ground method.
He said the measurement is being done by the two methods for better confirmation of the findings.
A devastating 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Nepal in 2015 in which thousands of people were killed and altered the landscape across the Himalayan nations.
AMandeep
