Six travel and mountain rescue executives have been arrested and accused of conducting fake rescues on Nepal’s high mountains in order to scam millions of dollars from insurance companies.
The arrests come as the South Asian nation tries to strengthen its economy by boosting the number of tourists climbing and trekking in its mountainous provinces.
Every year thousands of climbers travel to Nepal to “scale the highest Himalayan mountains”, and tens of thousands more arrive to “hike the mountain trails” that lead up to “the base camps of these high peaks”, according to The Associated Press.
The terrain and weather can be unforgiving, and, each year, several climbers die and hundreds are rescued, “suffering from extreme exhaustion, altitude sickness or other medical issues”.
This is where the trouble begins. In a series of insurance scams worth a total of $20 million (£14.6 million), tour operators and rescue services have been faking documents and submitting false claims for medical emergencies that involved expensive helicopter evacuations from remote trekking areas. This large-scale fraud has “badly tarnished Nepal’s image as a tourist destination”, said The Kathmandu Post.
Nevertheless, Nepal is busy boosting its tourist climbing sector. It has made 97 of its Himalayan mountains free to climb for the next two years in a bid to encourage people to visit its more remote areas, generating jobs and income for locals. It’s not clear if there are plans to improve infrastructure in these areas or whether the local communities will be able to cope with an influx of climbers. | 
