Nepal officials and mountaineers call it fanciful, something impractical to enforce on the mountaintop, which is just about 25 square metres.

Kami Rita Sherpa led the group and climbed the mountain for a record 25 times. The ascent in the time of a pandemic is the season's earliest in more than two decades.

Government and mountaineering officials have dismissed reports, but a record high surge in infections in Nepal has set off alarm bells.

Officials fail to explain why, but questions have arisen over the decision as virus cases have been surging in the capitals of both Nepal and India.

Domestic flights have to stop from Monday midnight and international flights from Wednesday midnight. The restrictions are in place until May 14.

Nepal is likely to receive 'above normal rainfall' for the first time in many years this monsoon which is expected to boost the economy strangled by Covid-19.

Here’s what you need to know about the new rules, the kind of tests you’ll need to take, how to quarantine, and who’s exempt.

The drought is expected to have lessened the yield by 8 percent to 2.09 million tonnes, officials said.

394 climbing permits have been issued to Everest aspirants even as Nepal has been reporting a steady rise in the number of new coronavirus infections over the last two weeks.

Tourism Department has issued Everest permits to 377 individuals so far, and the number is expected to rise close to 400.

Carriers saw an all-time monthly high in passenger numbers in March 2021 and private airlines are looking to cash in on the boom, data suggests.

The supplementary environmental impact assessment report will take months and further delay work at Pokhara International Airport, officials say.

In fiscal 2019-20, exports amounted to $835 million while imports valued at $10.22 billion flooded in.

Everest, closed last year, sees a high number of climbers. So far 244 individual permits have been issued and officials expect this number to near the 2019 record of 381.

The money received from development partners accounts for 23.3 percent of the national budget.