CAPF expedition screens foreign nationals for Covid at Everest Base Camp

Vijay Mohan

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 21

Amidst the devastating second wave of Covid that swept across the sub-continent, a joint mountaineering team from the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) screened foreign nationals for the deadly virus at the Everest Base Camp in Nepal.

About 280 people from different countries were examined at the camp, a CAPF officer said. The emergencies, including cases of frostbite, acute mountain sickness and Covid, were managed by Dr Tarun Rana, a Deputy Commandant with the Indo-Tibetan Border Police. He was also part of the CAPF group that summited Mount Lobuche, at a height of 20,100 feet, becoming the first medical officer from the CAPFs to scale an international peak.

About 20 people who had shown serious symptoms of Covid were airlifted from the base camp to Kathmandu for treatment. Mild and moderate cases were managed at the base camp itself and some of the people even recovered and scaled Mt Everest, the officer added. Medicines and health-care items were also distributed by the team at a health camp at Porsche village in Nepal.

The 38-member team, led by Inspector General Raghubir Lal, returned to New Delhi a few days ago and is at present in isolation in accordance with Covid protocols. The members were drawn from the Indo-Tibetan Border Police, Border Security Force, Shashtra Seema Bal, Central Industrial Security Force and the Central Reserve Police Force, which come under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Home Affairs.

The team had left for Kathmandu on April 13 to scale Mt Everest and Mt Lhotse, the fourth highest mountain in the world, spending about two months in Nepal for the expedition. According to officials, this is for the first time since the mid-1990s that a joint CAPF international expedition was conducted, though different forces have undertaken expeditions individually.