This is with response to the news story “Spaniards climb ‘sacred peaks’ sans DoT permit” (THT, November 30, Page 1).

What they (three climbers) did was not only illegal it was disrespectful to Nepal. DoT Director Durga Datta Dhakal’s suggestion that they should be banned for ten years was a good one.

In the United States our parks charge fees for things like park entry and camping.

These fees go towards funding critical projects that improve visitor services and protect natural and cultural resources such as roads improvement, upgrades, restoring native fish and etc.

We limit back country camping access to our parks through a permit system. We also charge fees for search and rescue of lost or injured hikers and climbers.

It is not unreasonable for Nepal to require mountain climbing permits and to have a fee for those permits.

It is also not unreasonable for Nepal to either heavily fine or to ban individuals deliberately defrauding the permit system.

Martin Coleman, Colorado

Beacons

Apropos of the news story “Woodburn marks history as Reds enter League Cup semi-finals” (THT December 11, Page 11), at 17 years and 45 days, boy Ben has indeed created history by scoring his first senior league goal on debut in the international stage.

He has beaten Michael Owen to the record post by almost 100 days.

He deserves a grand salute from football fans all around the world. While talking about boys, also worthy of mention are Joshua Wong, the 19-year-old Hong Kong’s now-stripped legislator, who at 17 years, whipped the people into frenzy through his umbrella movement.

And, of course, we cannot but mention Hardik Patel, the 22-year-old behind Patedar movement, who has been banished from his home state for creating mischief.

All these young men should serve as beacon to the vast number of youths in this country.

Our youths must follow the dreams and aspirations of these boys rather than bikes and girls and party insignia to make the Himalayan Republic a better place.

Manohar Shrestha, Kathmandu

Seismology

I am writing this letter to explain my points on why country like Nepal should most definitely need to understand the acute necessity of knowledge transformation by adopting seismology in our curriculum.

To my knowledge it would be even better to make this discipline a compulsory subject. The basic theoretical and practical knowledge should be implemented in our curriculum.

If this education is given to students, I think it will go towards bolstering what should be the sophisticated contents of the topics that need to be included in the decades to come.

For now we need to start and that will further enhance our perception and the calibre to understand the harsh consequences and mitigation measures along the way or somewhere down the road.

Shiva Neupane, Melbourne.