作者： admin

A first-hand reporting journey through Nepal’s flood-ravaged terrain has laid bare the full scale of the disaster unfolding across the country, as the BBC’s South Asia correspondent Azadeh Moshiri documents the grim aftermath while traveling from the capital Kathmandu to the hard-hit town of Trishuli.

What should have been a routine overland trip between the two population centers has been transformed into a sobering passage through a landscape altered by catastrophic flooding. Moshiri’s route is repeatedly interrupted by sections of road washed out or blocked by landslides and debris triggered by the swollen waterways that have overrun their banks. Every mile of the journey reveals new signs of destruction: damaged infrastructure, submerged settlements along the Trishuli River, and scattered personal belongings washed downstream by the rushing floodwaters.

Most striking of all is the steady stream of emergency vehicles moving along the cleared sections of the highway: ambulances rushing to evacuate trapped survivors and hearses carrying the remains of those who have lost their lives to the disaster. The continuous procession underscores the heavy human cost of the floods, which have displaced thousands and left communities scrambling to mount rescue and recovery operations.

Local disaster response teams have been working around the clock to clear blocked routes and reach cut-off communities, but the scale of the infrastructure damage has slowed progress, leaving many remote areas still waiting for aid. This on-the-ground reporting from the disaster zone offers a raw, unfiltered look at the immediate aftermath of one of the most significant flood events to hit Nepal in recent years.

It has been days since deadly flash floods tore through the Himalayan border region between Nepal and Tibet, but for the families of two missing Indian pilgrims, the agony of uncertainty has only deepened. At least 290 Indians are among the hundreds reported unaccounted for after the disaster, which has already claimed 475 confirmed lives, leaving dozens of families clinging to hope and begging for clear information about their loved ones.

Among the missing is 43-year-old Subhrasree Chakraborty, a critical care medical technologist from Kolkata whose lifelong dream was to complete the pilgrimage to Mount Kailash, the sacred Himalayan site revered as the home of Hindu god Shiva. For years after the pilgrimage was halted first by the COVID-19 pandemic and then by cross-border tensions between India and China, Subhrasree waited for her chance to go. When routes reopened last year, she quickly booked her spot on the tour, leaving her husband Sudipto Bhattacharya at home to follow along via her messages.

Subhrasree’s journey began on August 21, when she boarded the Mithila Express from Kolkata, crossing into Nepal the next day and reaching Kathmandu that same night. For three days, she explored the ancient capital, sending home glowing photos of herself smiling in temple courtyards and posing against the historic architecture of Durbar Square. She told Bhattacharya, a government officer, that the Nepalese countryside was more beautiful than she had imagined, and that she could not wait for the next leg of the trip north.

On August 25, Subhrasree’s group departed Kathmandu by bus for Syabrubesi, a small mountain settlement 122 kilometers north that serves as the primary gateway to the Langtang trekking region and the Mount Kailash pilgrimage route. The 12-hour journey was interrupted by a four-hour delay after a landslide blocked the road, which Nepalese army crews eventually cleared. Even with the setback, Subhrasree told her husband the weather was clear and warm, with only occasional light rain, giving no hint of the disaster that would strike less than 24 hours later.

Early on the morning of August 26, Subhrasree left her hotel just after 7 a.m. local time. She spoke to Bhattacharya by phone shortly after departure, and the pair continued to exchange messages as the group approached the border. At 7:57 a.m. local time (2:27 a.m. GMT), she sent Bhattacharya her final message: a photo of her passport stamped with Nepal immigration clearance, and a note that the group was waiting to cross into Chinese-controlled Tibet. Six minutes later, at 8:03 a.m., all communication stopped.

Bhattacharya says he initially expected the silence, noting that connectivity is notoriously spotty on the Tibetan side of the border. He waited for hours for another update, until mid-afternoon when he saw breaking news of the flash floods hitting the border region. He began calling every number he had for members of Subhrasree’s 30-person group, the tour operator, and the two group managers – none answered. To date, he has received no official confirmation of whether Subhrasree crossed into Chinese territory before the floods struck, whether she was rescued, or if she is among the missing or dead.

“After 08:03am, what happened? We don’t know anything,” Bhattacharya said in an interview. “Have they been rescued? Was this group among those rescued in China? We want to know more. Please get me a list from the Chinese government – missing, dead and rescued. We need an update. What do I tell you? Sleepless nights, working on the phone.”

Subhrasree is not alone in being unaccounted for. Fifty-four-year-old Rina Banerjee, an unmarried private tutor and experienced hiker also from Kolkata, was part of the same pilgrimage group and has not been heard from since the floods. Rina had long dreamed of visiting Mount Kailash, and had gone on multiple mountain hiking trips with her family before, her nephew Dwaipayan Mukherjee says.

Like Subhrasree, Rina’s journey went smoothly until the morning of August 26. The family spoke to her via video call while she stayed in Kathmandu, and she told them she was happy to finally take the trip she had planned for so long. She even shared details of the four-hour landslide delay on the drive from Kathmandu to Syabrubesi. On the morning of the floods, the tour operator shared a group photo showing Rina outside the Nepal immigration center, already having received her exit stamp.

Since that photo was sent, there has been nothing but silence. “I don’t know whether they crossed the border or not,” Mukherjee said. “Whether they were on the Chinese side or the Nepal side, we are still wondering.”

The Mount Kailash pilgrimage draws thousands of Indian devotees every year, after years of pandemic and cross-border tension halted travel completely. Routes only resumed last year, giving hundreds of long-waiting pilgrims like Subhrasree and Rina the chance to fulfill their lifelong spiritual goal.

Today, both women’s names appear on the Nepalese government’s official list of 537 people missing following the floods. The Kolkata-based tour operator that organized their trip says it still has no information about the fate of the group, leaving their families with no answers and only one unanswered question lingering: did they make it across the border before the floods hit?

A major rescue operation is underway in northern Nepal after over 100 people were trapped inside an under-construction hydropower tunnel in the district of Rasuwa, according to official statements. The Nepalese Army has been deployed to lead urgent efforts to pull surviving victims out of the collapsed and blocked passage, with local emergency services also on site to support the mission.

The incident has triggered urgent concern across the country, as rescuers work against challenging conditions including unstable terrain, limited access to the blocked section of the tunnel, and potential risks of further structural damage. Initial reports confirm that army teams have already begun extracting a small number of survivors, though details on the current status of those still trapped and the exact cause of the incident have not yet been fully released by authorities.

Hydropower development is a core sector of Nepal’s economy, with dozens of large and small infrastructure projects underway across the mountainous nation to harness its river systems for electricity generation. The Rasuwa district, located along Nepal’s northern border, is home to several planned and active hydropower schemes, and occupational safety in such remote, geologically challenging construction sites has long been a topic of discussion among infrastructure regulators and safety advocates.

In the high-risk mountainous zone along the Nepal-Tibet border, catastrophic flash floods and subsequent large-scale landslides have left a grim trail of destruction, with the confirmed death toll surpassing 400 as search and rescue missions press forward across Nepal’s hardest-hit regions. Local medical facilities are already stretched beyond capacity, grappling with a sudden surge of casualties: at least 900 injured people have been pulled from flood-ravaged communities, and hundreds more remain unaccounted for, leaving distraught survivors scrambling for any information about missing family members.

BBC Nepali correspondent Shreejana Shrestha gained on-the-ground access to Nuwakot, one of the worst-affected districts in central Nepal, where a Nepali Army base has been converted into a central coordination hub for rescue and recovery operations. What she witnessed during her visit paints a devastating picture of the disaster’s human cost.

Upon entering the converted camp, Shrestha encountered a scene of overwhelming grief. Hundreds of anxious family members lined up outside the facility, scanning every incoming person and transport to spot their loved ones. Inside, a young woman holding an infant sobbed uncontrollably; her entire extended family, including her parents and husband, were still missing after the floodwaters swept through her village. Traumatized by the sudden loss, she could barely process what had happened.

Scattered across the camp were injured survivors, many of whom recounted near-miraculous escapes that left them alive but broken by grief. One truck driver, who had been working in the Rasuwa district adjacent to the border, told the reporter he was flung into the raging floodwaters when the deluge hit. He still cannot explain how he survived the powerful current, but his relief at being alive is overshadowed by the loss of more than 20 friends and colleagues. When Shrestha attempted to speak with him, he was too disoriented and distraught to form steady answers, tears streaming down his face as he struggled to cope.

In one harrowing moment caught during reporting, an elderly woman between 60 and 70 years old, who had just been airlifted out of a cut-off flood zone by rescue teams, collapsed on the ground moments after being brought to the camp for treatment. She died shortly after, a loss that left the on-scene reporter reeling from the scope of the tragedy.

Around the clock, dozens of rescue helicopters rotate in and out of the camp’s landing zone, ferrying injured survivors out and bringing emergency supplies and rescue teams in. Every time an aircraft approaches, crowds of waiting family members rush to the edge of the landing area, craning their necks to spot any sign of their missing loved ones even as rotor wash blows thick mud and dust across the crowd. Most leave disappointed, but still they return, clinging to the faint hope that their family members will be on the next flight.

Nepalese government officials confirmed that at least 12 helicopters have been mobilized for the search and rescue effort, with additional ground teams deployed to reach remote, cut-off communities that were hit by the disaster. After leaving the rescue camp, Shrestha and her team faced widespread communication outages: damaged infrastructure left the region with almost no internet connectivity, forcing them to drive three hours back to Kathmandu to share their on-the-ground reporting.

A veteran journalist who has covered multiple natural disasters across Nepal over her career, Shrestha noted that this flood disaster is one of the most devastating she has ever witnessed. “It was so painful to witness. But as a journalist you do your job: you continue getting, and giving, as much information as possible,” she said of her experience reporting from the disaster zone.

The Nepal-Tibet border region is increasingly vulnerable to sudden flash floods driven by glacial melt and extreme weather events, a risk that climate scientists have warned will grow as global temperatures rise, increasing the frequency of catastrophic glacial lake outburst floods and sudden runoff events in the Himalayas.