Nepal Police and Armed Force along with other security forces launch a search and rescue operations along Trishuli River in Nepal .
| Photo Credit: ANI

Nepal has formally requested India’s assistance in locating the two buses and over five dozen passengers swept away in the landslide in central Nepal earlier on Friday, July 12 morning.

Nepal’s Ministry of Home Affairs wrote to India on Monday, July 15, sking for India’s assistance to search for the missing buses and passengers.

“We have written to the Indian government asking for technical assistance, including the divers, via the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nepal,” Bhismakumar Bhusal, Joint Secretary at the Disaster and Conflict Management Division under the Home Ministry, confirmed to ANI over the phone.

“All the available resources don’t seem to be enough; that’s why we have asked India for assistance. It’s first time that we’ve asked them for this kind of assistance,” Mr. Bhusal added

.Nepal had asked for Bangladesh’s assistance for a search operation of a similar kind in previous years.

In the letter sent to India, Nepal has sought supporting technologies that would help to trace and retract the dead bodies or possible remains from the Trishuli River, where the two passenger buses were swept into by the landslide.

As per the record till Tuesday morning, a total of 13 bodies of passengers were recovered after the two buses were swept away by a landslide in Bharatpur metropolis-29, Simaltal, Chitwan, on Friday morning.

According to the police, nine bodies were recovered from Nawalparasi (Bardaghat Susta East), three from Chitwan, and one from Nawalparasi (Bardaghat-Susta West). Deputy Superintendent of Police Bed Bahadur Poudel, Information Officer at the District Police Office in Nawalparasi (Bardaghat-Susta East), confirmed that four bodies were found in the district on Monday alone.

Of the nine bodies recovered in Nawalpur, the identities of five have been confirmed as passengers from the swept-away buses.The remaining four bodies are yet to be identified but are believed to be among the missing passengers. Two of the bodies were recovered near the Gandak Barrage Bridge, and the other two were found along the Narayani river bank at Madhyabindu-2.

The identified bodies from three districts include 19-year-old Ramit Kasur Majhi of Barahathawa municipality-3 (Sarlahi), Bikas Pariyar, 22, of Madi-1 (Chitwan), Sajad Ansari (30) of Bihar’s Betiya, Rahum Miya (17) of Jamunamai rural municipality-4 (Rautahat), Rishipal Sah, 28, of Sitamadi Barganiya, India, Jay Prakash Thakur (30) of Sitamadi Betiya (India), and Paramananda Pandit (43) of Bara. These bodies have been sent to Bharatpur Hospital.

Nepal Police and Armed Force along with other security forces launch a search and rescue operations along Trishuli River in Nepal .
| Photo Credit: ANI

Nepal has formally requested India’s assistance in locating the two buses and over five dozen passengers swept away in the landslide in central Nepal earlier on Friday, July 12 morning.

Nepal’s Ministry of Home Affairs wrote to India on Monday, July 15, sking for India’s assistance to search for the missing buses and passengers.

“We have written to the Indian government asking for technical assistance, including the divers, via the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nepal,” Bhismakumar Bhusal, Joint Secretary at the Disaster and Conflict Management Division under the Home Ministry, confirmed to ANI over the phone.

“All the available resources don’t seem to be enough; that’s why we have asked India for assistance. It’s first time that we’ve asked them for this kind of assistance,” Mr. Bhusal added

.Nepal had asked for Bangladesh’s assistance for a search operation of a similar kind in previous years.

In the letter sent to India, Nepal has sought supporting technologies that would help to trace and retract the dead bodies or possible remains from the Trishuli River, where the two passenger buses were swept into by the landslide.

As per the record till Tuesday morning, a total of 13 bodies of passengers were recovered after the two buses were swept away by a landslide in Bharatpur metropolis-29, Simaltal, Chitwan, on Friday morning.

According to the police, nine bodies were recovered from Nawalparasi (Bardaghat Susta East), three from Chitwan, and one from Nawalparasi (Bardaghat-Susta West). Deputy Superintendent of Police Bed Bahadur Poudel, Information Officer at the District Police Office in Nawalparasi (Bardaghat-Susta East), confirmed that four bodies were found in the district on Monday alone.

Of the nine bodies recovered in Nawalpur, the identities of five have been confirmed as passengers from the swept-away buses.The remaining four bodies are yet to be identified but are believed to be among the missing passengers. Two of the bodies were recovered near the Gandak Barrage Bridge, and the other two were found along the Narayani river bank at Madhyabindu-2.

The identified bodies from three districts include 19-year-old Ramit Kasur Majhi of Barahathawa municipality-3 (Sarlahi), Bikas Pariyar, 22, of Madi-1 (Chitwan), Sajad Ansari (30) of Bihar’s Betiya, Rahum Miya (17) of Jamunamai rural municipality-4 (Rautahat), Rishipal Sah, 28, of Sitamadi Barganiya, India, Jay Prakash Thakur (30) of Sitamadi Betiya (India), and Paramananda Pandit (43) of Bara. These bodies have been sent to Bharatpur Hospital.

People watch the flooded Bagmati river in Kathmandu, Nepal. File photo
| Photo Credit: AP

As many as 66 people were believed missing in Nepal after two buses were swept by a landslide triggered off the highway and into a swollen river Friday, officials said.

Also read: 62 killed in rain-related incidents in Nepal in one month

Rescuers were trying to locate the bus and and help with rescue the passengers but the continuous rain was making rescue efforts difficult.

The route leading to the accident area was also blocked in several places by landslides, said government administrator Khima Nanada Bhusal.

The buses were swept away around 3 a.m. Friday. Additional rescuers and security forces have been sent to the area to help with rescue efforts.

One bus had 24 people while the other had 42 but more could have boarded the bus while on the route, Bhusal said.

Monsoon season that begins in June and ends in September bring heavy rainfall to Nepal usually triggering landslides in the Himalayan country that is mostly covered by mountains.

People watch the flooded Bagmati river in Kathmandu, Nepal, Saturday, July 6, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

Lashing rains in Nepal causing flash floods and landslides have killed at least 14 persons across the country, with disaster teams searching for nine missing, police said on July 7.

Flooding in India, as well as in downstream Bangladesh, has also caused widespread damage and impacted millions.

“Police are working with other agencies and locals to find the missing people,” Nepalese police spokesman Dan Bahadur Karki told AFP.

Those killed and missing are in multiple locations.

Monsoon rains from June to September bring widespread death and destruction every year across South Asia, but the numbers of fatal floods and landslides have increased in recent years.

Experts say climate change and increased road construction are exacerbating the problem.

Parts of Nepal have been receiving heavy rainfall since July 4, prompting disaster authorities in the Himalayan nation to warn of flash floods in multiple rivers.

There have been reports of inundation in several districts of lowland areas bordering India.

Last month 14 persons were killed in Nepal in ferocious storms that brought landslides, lightning and flooding.

In India, floods have swamped the northeastern state of Assam, with six persons killed in the last 24 hours, Assam’s Disaster Management Authority said on July 7.

That takes the death toll from the downpours since mid-May to 58.

In low-lying Bangladesh, downstream from India, the disaster management agency said floods had impacted more than two million people.

Much of the country is made up of deltas where the Himalayan rivers the Ganges and the Brahmaputra wind towards the sea after coursing through India.

The summer monsoon brings South Asia 70-80% of its annual rainfall.

A man walks towards his flooded house on the bank of Bagmati river following heavy monsoon rains in Kathmandu, Nepal, Saturday, July 6, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

At least two workers building a tunnel at a hydropower project in Nepal were killed and ten injured as heavy rain lashed Kathmandu and other parts of the country on July 5 and 6, officials said.

Two labourers died on July 5 after they were buried in the tunnel of the under-construction Bhotekoshi Hydropower Project in Sindhupalchowk district, 125 km East of Kathmandu.

Their bodies have been recovered.

As many as 12 workers were buried when the dam side tunnel of Jhirpu Electro Power Company Limited, which is under construction in Bhotekoshi Rural Municipality, collapsed following heavy rainfall.

The police said 10 workers were injured in the incident. The injured were rescued and admitted to a local hospital for treatment.

Separately, an 18-year-old boy went missing after the Rapti River in the Dang district of Western Nepal swept him away.

However, two other men who were stranded on a tree near the swollen river were rescued by security personnel, according to the police.

A woman has also gone missing in Dolakha district, about 180 kilometres East of Kathmandu, after being swept away by the flooding river.

The police have started a riverbank patrolling after the water level of rivers in the Kathmandu Valley increased alarmingly in the wake of incessant rainfall.

Most places in Bagmati, Gandaki and Lumbini provinces received light to moderate rain while heavy rainfall occurred in a few places of Bagmati, Koshi, Gandaki and Karnali.

The flood in the Hanumante river in Bhaktapur district near Kathmandu triggered by heavy rainfall has reached above the danger level and started entering the local residential areas.

More than 600 houses are at risk due to the swelling river, said the police.

Dinesh Raj Mainali, the spokesperson at the Kathmandu Valley Police Office, said the police have started patrolling to prevent untoward incidents along the river corridors in the Valley.

“We mobilised police teams on the banks of rivers and streams, considering the possible risks of floods and inundations in the nearby settlements.”

The police vehicles are on constant watch along the riverside — Bagmati, Bishnumati, Manohara and Hanumante rivers, the spokesperson said.