‘Every rescue now a miracle’: 4,462 still missing in Nepal, hopes dim
TRISHULI BAZAAR (NUWANKOT, NEPAL): Death toll from the Aug 26 Himalayan flood rose to 1,066 across Nepal and Tibet on Tuesday, while 4,462 people remained missing as rescue operations entered a critical phase.Of those killed, 1,050 were in Nepal and 16 in Tibet. Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority listed 3,916 people missing, including 583 foreign nationals, while China’s latest count listed another 546 missing in Tibet.Seven days after the flood, hope of finding survivors in the open along the Bhote Koshi-Trishuli corridor dimmed sharply. Senior police officers and disaster management officials told TOI that, outside tunnels, underground powerhouses and other protected structures, “each successful rescue would now be a miracle”. This, even as teams searched stretches buried under sludge, boulders, uprooted trees and wreckage. “The sheer volume and force of the flash flood left virtually no accessible pockets of shelter along the open riverbanks,” a senior Nepal Police officer coordinating ground operations said.After seven days under heavy debris and hardened silt, finding anyone alive out in the open has become extremely unlikely. But we are not calling off the search.”Officials involved in surface searches said the force of the flood had stripped away settlements and vegetation along parts of the river corridor and deposited deep layers of mud, rock and timber downstream, leaving few protected spaces where someone caught in the open could survive for a week.A senior Nepalese army officer involved in downstream search efforts added, “Our field units and canine squads are covering massive stretches of silt, but the ground reality is exceptionally grim. Anyone caught in the open bore the direct brunt of heavy boulders and torrents. Our remaining operational hope for living survivors is largely concentrated on the underground project sites where air pockets might exist.”For India, the latest MEA missing-person list remained at 275 Indian nationals and 128 PIOs. MEA didn’t revise the figure on Tuesday. It said 158 Indian nationals had been rescued by Monday night.The strongest remaining hopes now centre on Nepal’s devastated hydropower projects. NDRRMA listed 639 people associated with hydel projects as missing, while Independent Power Producers’ Association Nepal (IPPAN) put 894 people “out of contact” across 11 projects.Officials and industry representatives estimated that around 500 could have been inside tunnels when the flood struck, though rescuers had not established precisely how many were underground.Floodwater, boulders and thick slurry blocked passages and collapsed tunnel sections. At Upper Trishuli-1, rescuers pushed around 160m inside before finding the passage blocked. At Chilime, teams reached about 150m before encountering a steep section that was completely buried.At Upper Trishuli-3A, rescuers used excavators, compressors and rock breakers to create an opening, but a rush of water prevented entry and forced them to try another approach. Access work continued at Upper Trishuli-3B.Indian specialist teams worked with Nepal army at Chilime and Langtang, while Chinese tunnel experts joined operations at Upper Trishuli-3A. An Indian team had probed up to 185m inside the Langtang tunnel. India also sent forensic specialists, including DNA experts, to help identify bodies.At Rasuwagadhi Hydropower Project, a thermal drone sent inside one tunnel detected no sign of life in the section it surveyed. Drone operator Manish Maharjan said mud, water and debris had filled 80-90% of the height of parts of the tunnel. He described some passages as being packed with mud “like toothpaste in a tube”.Yet the tunnels and underground powerhouses still offered what the devastated riverbanks did not — the possibility of protected chambers and pockets of air. Nepal Tunnelling Association secretary Chhatra Bahadur Basnet said there was still hope of finding survivors underground but warned that limited oxygen, food and water made every passing hour critical.
