Had settlements lying along the riverbanks been moved a few terraces up, the damage would have been lesser, as indicated by the lush green terraces with buildings still standing beyond the debris on either side
The Bhotekoshi flood accompanied with debris flow has created damage of astronomical proportion. The exact physical loss can be computed only after reconstruction works end, which at the present is estimated at Rs 8 trillion. The social loss, however, cannot be expressed in terms of numbers due to its infinite nature. People have lost parents, children, spouses, and cattle. So far, 1,356 persons have left for their heavenly abode while 5,000 people are still missing. Some 13,396 people have been rescued, and for this noble task, 21,402 security personnel were mobilised.
A disaster is a tragic event, the occurrence of which creates such a loss of life and property that the local people become helpless, needing support from outside. It is no wonder then that help in terms of kind and cash began flowing from around the globe, including from Nepalis staying abroad. India, our southern neighbour landed the next morning with huge amounts of relief materials, followed by China and other countries in quick succession.
Disaster has a three-phased cycle. Before it strikes, preparedness has to be launched round the clock. Preparedness has often been our Achilles heel, and we often suffer from a huge loss after every disaster. In fact, nature had already alerted us through the Thame flood of 2025. Had we prepared by moving settlements lying along the riverbanks a few terraces up, the damage would have been lesser. This is indicated by the lush green terraces with buildings standing as usual beyond the debris on either side.
It has to be said with a heavy heart that the State has failed significantly on the preparedness front. To fail is never good, but not to learn lessons from failures in the past is worse. We should thus use lessons from this disaster for future use. They are likely to be many in view of vulnerable glaciers located in the Himalayan belt, which can explode any time causing glacial lake outburst floods in Nepal.
The second phase is rescue and relief. Rescue is about saving people from a disaster. Relief is characterised by the distribution of emergency shelters and supplies like holding centres, medicines, food, and water for immediate survival. The third is reconstruction.
Rescue is the most difficult one because it has to be launched immediately after a disaster. The tragic flood was predicted to be followed by a bigger one, which, fortunately, was a mere overflow. It impeded the rescue effort in the beginning. To make matters worse, the government rejected helping hands from outside. It made a volte face by accepting help after three days, which was too late for a disaster of this size. The lack of coordination among the federal, provincial, and local governments from the very beginning also compounded the rescue problem.
But better late than never, the government's swift action after making the corrections on the afore mentioned fronts, reaped good results. Several people were rescued, including one 6-year-old girl and a 64-year-old lady whose post-death rituals were already underway. The dramatic rescue of Sanjaya Shaha and Kabir Maharjan, following the effort of Sri Ram Neupane, a Member of Parliament and a tunnel engineer, in collaboration with the security personnel, brought a new ray of hope amidst the overwhelming despair. The arrival of Indian, Chinese, and Australian tunnel experts also boosted the sagging spirit.
Despite this, the rescue effort has been dwarfed by the insurmountable disaster. What we can do is to learn lessons from where we fumbled. For this, we can take the case of the Chamoli disaster in India. Despite being smaller in scale compared to the Bhotekoshi tragedy, it was similar in nature.
The likeness was also with respect to the erroneously perceived cause of the disaster initially. In the case of the Bhotekoshi disaster, it was ascribed to an earthquake of 4.4 magnitude. Later, it was attributed to a huge mass to the north of Langtang market that skidded down thousands of meters to crash against the Lhinde River, resulting in the unimaginable mishap. In the case of Chamoli also, it was initially said that the Nanda Devi glacier had melted to create the tragic glacial lake outburst flood. But later it was attributed to a glacier that got torn from the Nanda Ghunti Mountain.
The other resemblance was the existence of hydropower tunnels from which debris entered, trapping the workers inside. In the case of Chamoli, 22 workers were trapped in the tunnel of the Tapoban Vishnugadh Hydropower Project, out of which 12 were rescued. In the Bhotekoshi case, there are 13 hydropower plants with 151 workers trapped inside tunnels, from which only two people have been rescued so far while another four dead bodies have been recovered.
Nepal has mobilised the security agencies with commendable results. India, in turn, mobilised the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) which is unbelievably efficient. It was seen during the 2024 Dana cyclone in West Bengal where only four people died. In contrast, in the 1999 Odisha cyclone, 10,000 people had died.
Several lessons can be drawn from this brave but belittled effort. Firstly, the government should be open to outside support during disasters that are beyond the nation's capacity to handle. Secondly, expert groups such as tunnel experts should be invited as soon as a disaster strikes. Had we done this, Indian tunnel experts could have landed the very next morning. Thirdly, Nepal should have an outfit similar to the NDRF within our security wing. These lessons will certainly be fruitful in handling forthcoming disasters.