--- title: Mount Everest Climb: Indian Army To Climb To Remove Trash description: When mountaineers from the Indian Army scale Mount Everest later this month, they will be tasked with carrying down non-biodegradable trash. canonical: https://time.com/3766862/mountaineers-everest-trash/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-04-01T14:56:05.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:59:30.064Z article:section: Science og:title: Indian Army to Climb Everest to Remove Thousands of Pounds of Trash og:description: "Sadly, Mount Everest is now also called the world's highest junkyard" og:url: https://time.com/3766862/mountaineers-everest-trash/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltad6a9e940f7e45b8/6987862d8e0601548d45b0cc/everest-trash.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: This picture taken on May 23, 2010 shows og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Indian Army to Climb Everest to Remove Thousands of Pounds of Trash twitter:description: "Sadly, Mount Everest is now also called the world's highest junkyard" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltad6a9e940f7e45b8/6987862d8e0601548d45b0cc/everest-trash.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Indian Army to Climb Everest to Remove Thousands of Pounds of Trash > Sponsored content. 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But soon biologists will clone long-gone animals in the hope to redefine that axiom to "DE-extinction is forever."_  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Apr 1, 2015 2:56 PM UTC  This picture taken on May 23, 2010 shows a Nepalese sherpa collecting garbage, left by climbers, at an altitude of 8,000 meters during the Everest clean-up expedition at Mount Everest. This picture taken on May 23, 2010 shows a Nepalese sherpa collecting garbage, left by climbers, at an altitude of 8,000 meters during the Everest clean-up expedition at Mount Everest. Namgyal Sherpa—AFP/Getty Images  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Apr 1, 2015 2:56 PM UTC Mountaineers from the Indian Army will scale Mount Everest later this month to [clean up trash left behind by past climbers](http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/mount-everest-swachh-bharat-mission-trash-garbage-indian-army/1/426657.html). The 34 members of the climbing team plan to collect and carry down more than 8,800 lbs. (4,000 kg) of non-biodegradable garbage and equipment that has been dumped by thousands of people who have made the trip over the years, _India Today_ reports. “Sadly, Mount Everest is now also called the world’s highest junkyard,” said major Ranveer Singh Jamval, the leader of the climb. “Our aim is to carry forward our prime minister’s dream of cleanliness everywhere,” Jamval added of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has made a push to clear the country’s roads and public places of trash. The trip falls on the 50th anniversary of the successful Everest climb by Indian Army mountaineers. \[[_India Today_](http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/mount-everest-swachh-bharat-mission-trash-garbage-indian-army/1/426657.html)\] ## Transcript [ SOUND ] [ MUSIC ] My name is Stuart Brand and I was trained as an ecologist. Conservation is about to take a turn because the technology was gonna allow us to use the DNA that's in the museum specimens and fossils to bring back extinct species [ MUSIC ] The passenger pigeon was around for 6 million years. And people remembered how amazing it was that these animals darkened the sky for hours at a time. There's these stories about these giant flocks blocking out the sun. And their wings sounding louder than thunder. We developed the techniques to hunt and net these birds and basically killed them all. And then it was really gone. When I was growing up, my mother said when the last one died in 1914 it broke America's heart. It was one of the prideful things that America had to show the world, and it was gone. This book. This is essentially the bible of passenger pigeon. I am currently the lead researcher for the deextinction project to bring the extinct passenger pigeon back to life. When I say, oh, we'll bring back a passenger pigeon, everyone goes, oh, my god, that's like Jurassic Park. And no, no, it's not. Not at all. Our scientists have done things which nobody's ever done before. Yeah, yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should. I don't think a pigeon is going to, you know, pluck lawyers off of toilets. No. [ SOUND ]. Aah! [ BLANK_AUDIO ] So how we're actually going to go about deextinction. Every organism has a unique code in their genes. This one would be good I think. So these are actual DNA codes. From a chunk of a passenger pigeon foot. Now, if you can get DNA, then we can actually make it into a living cell. We're going to sequence its whole genome. We're gonna build from scratch the code that is a passenger pigeon, one gene at a time. Compare it to its closest relative. [ MUSIC ] Then we're gonna introduce DNA into the living cell of a band- tailed pigeon. And when you introduce an extinct animal's egg cell into a new mother, then you've changed the game. [ MUSIC ] Which has been done. The extinct Iranian Ibex was successfully cloned. That was the first deextinction. In this particular case, the animal only lived about ten minutes, but it was a proof of concept, and with further efforts, we hope, followed by everything from the passenger pigeon to the Tasmanian tiger. It's one of the most famous human- caused extinctions in the world. Benjamin, the last Tasmanian tiger, died in 1936. It was our direct activity that caused that extinction. For me, biotech is the future of conservation because our meddling is not unnatural. It is what species do. One of the things that gotten used to is the horrifying realization that extinction is forever. 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