Nepal's tourism department starts Narender Singh summit inquiry

(Left) Narender Singh without oxygen mask and a climber behind, and (right) with mask but no climber, pointing to a photoshop job

Nepal's Department of Tourism has taken note of the row over Haryana-based mountaineer Narender Singh's alleged fake Mt Everest Summit claim in the spring of May 2016, and intends to soon start a full-fledged investigation.

Talking to this writer from Kathmandu, Mira Acharya, Under-Secretary, who heads the mountaineering section at DoT under the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, says, "I am very sad to note that Indian climbers year after year are creating controversies. Personally, I have spoken to the people concerned here as well. So, we are definitely looking into Narender Singh's issue and we will investigate it thoroughly and try to solve the issue at the earliest."

A formal investigation is understood to have already started in the matter. According to sources in Nepal who are in the know of the probe, the documentation to attain the certificate is all in place. Hence, the probe will have to get deeper to ascertain that the climber in question, Singh, who claims to have summitted Mt Everest on May 20, 2016 at 7:53 am, did actually do so. "We are putting in place all the necessary mechanism and will fulfil all the procedures to find the truth," says Acharya. Back in India, Singh's Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award has been withheld for pending investigation.

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