New Delhi, July 26

Comparing the pristine Himalayas with the present-day tourist-choked hill stations, former Jammu and Kashmir Governor NN Vohra on Friday expressed the need for a campaign to save the Himalayas.

Speaking at an event, 'Mountain Dialogues', to mark the centenary of the historic 1924 British Everest expedition and the intriguing mystery of the disappearance of George Mallory and Andrew Irvine, Vohra said: "We need to plant millions of trees and not do what we are doing today."

Vohra, a 1959-batch Punjab-cadre IAS officer, talked about how thousands of cars reach Manali in Himachal Pradesh every day. Vohra, a former President of the Indian Mountaineering Foundation, recollected his younger days and described how one had to trek to reach Rohtang from Manali. Today, despite good roads, it takes four to five hours to reach there. Homestays, restaurants and hotels have lined up along the roadside, he said.

Speaking about Mount Everest, he said permanent ropes enable hundreds to reach the peak each year. "What exactly are we getting into?" asked Vohra, who has served as the Union Home Secretary and also the Defence Secretary. Shyam Saran, President, India International Centre, who was chairing the event, agreed with Vohra. "We need a national movement to save the Himalayas and the IIC would be very happy to join in," he said.

Saran is a former Foreign Secretary and has served as Prime Minister's Special Envoy for Nuclear Affairs and Climate Change.

Earlier, recollecting the journey of Mallory and Irvine, Brig Ashok Abbey (retd) talked about the sequence of events. He said it was Sir Colonel Francis Younghusband who had proposed the Everest climb in 1907. Mallory was part of a reconnaissance mission in 1922.

Brig Abbey said opinion was divided if Mallory reached the top or not. He and Irvine were last seen by a team member of theirs some 800 m near the summit.

Mallory's body was found in 1999, while a hundred years later, the body of Irvine was yet to be traced. "They were people from different genre of mountain climbing. Very few people can match up to Mallory and Irvine. They are the pioneers who did what they did with primitive clothing and did not have even simple things like crampons (used under the shoe to get a foot hold)."

Brig Abbey is a skier-mountaineer who has climbed extensively for over 43 years in the Karakoram, Great Himalayas and adjoining mountain ranges, including overseas.