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Sagarmatha
(Everest) National Park
Sagarmatha
National Park covers an area of 1148 square kilometers in the
Khumbu region of Nepal. The Park includes the highest peak in
the world.  Mt. Sagarmatha (Everest 8848 m.) and several other
well known peaks such as Lhotse, Cho Oyu, Pumori, Ama Dablam,
Thamerku, Kwangde, Kangtaiga and Gyachyung Kang.
As
Mt. Sagarmatha and the surrounding areas is of major significance
not only to Nepal but to the rest of the world. its status as
a national park since 1976 is intended to safeguard its unique
cultural , physical and scientific values through positive management
based on sound conservation principles.
How
to Get There - the Most Common Ways
- Flight
to Lukla, followed by two days' walk
- Bus
to Jiri and trek for two weeks
- Flight
to Tumlingtar, trek for 10-11 days.
Climate
The
summer climate is cool and wet and winter is cold and dry. Almost
all of the annual precipitation, averaging less than 1,000 mm.,
falls during the summer monsoon, from end of May to September
.Climatically, the best time to visit the park is between October
and May, except for December to February when , daytime temperatures
often drop below 0¼ C and there is heavy snowfall.
Geology
According
to the continental-drift theory, the Himalaya were uplifted
at the end of the Mesozoic Era, some 60 millions years, ago,
The resulting young mountains of this region are still rising,
and the net growth is a few centimeters per century.
Local
Inhabitants and Accommodations
The
park is populated by approximately 3,000 of the famed Sherpa
people, originating from Tibet in the late 15th or early 16th
century A.D. Their lives are interwoven with the teaching of
Buddhism. The main settlements are Namche Bazaar, Khumjung,
Khunde, Thame, Thyangboche, Pangboche and Phortse, Tere are
also temporary settlements in the upper valleys where the Sherpas
graze their livestock during the summer season.
The
economy of the Khumbu Sherpa community has traditionally been
agriculture, livestock herding and trade with Tibet. With the
coming of international mountaineering expeditions in the 1950s,
the region also attracted larger numbers of foreign trekkers.
Today the Sherpa economy is becoming increasingly dependent
on tourism.
There
are trekker lodges with food available in places like Namche
Bazaar, Thyangboche Pheriche and Lobuche, and along most of
the main trekking routes.
Vegetation,
Wild Animals and Birds
Vegetation
in the park various from pine and hemlock forests at lower altitudes,
fir, juniper, birch and rhododendron woods at mid-elevations,
scrub and alpine plant communities higher up, and bare rock
and snow above tree line, The famed bloom of rhododendrons occurs
during the spring (April and May) although much of the. flora
is most colorful during the monsoon season (June to August)
.
The
wild animals most likely to be seen in the park are the Himalayan
tahr, goral, serow, musk deer and Himalayan black bear. Other
mammals are weasels, martens. Himalayan mouse hare (Pika), jackals
and languor.
The
park provides a habit for at least 118 species of birds . The
most common birds to be seen are the Impeyen pheasant (the national
bird of Nepal), blood pheasant, cheer pheasant, jungle crow,
red billed and yellow billed coughs and snow pigeon. Fairly
common birds are the Himalayan griffon, lammergier, snow partridge,
skylark and other.
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