The scientific expedition will aim to determine whether a severe earthquake in the Himalayas in 2015 knocked some height off the world's tallest mountain. Some reports from satellite data suggested that some parts of Nepal had risen more than 30 feet as a result of the April quake, which measured 7.8 on the Richter scale and killed more than 5,000 people. Other reports suggested drops in other parts of the Himalayas, perhaps of several feet.

India's surveyor general, Swarna Subba Rao, said that the 30-member expedition would begin in March, with a report expected several weeks after that. The official height of Mount Everest, according to the Survey of India from an expedition in the mid-1950s, is 29,028 feet above sea level.

Meanwhile, Nepal's government announced that it was planning its own survey, independent of the Indian expedition.