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Guardian's Nepal topic feed — aggregates all Guardian coverage tagged Nepal (features, environment, politics, obituaries). Low volume but high-quality international framing. Feed is valid RSS 2.0 with full item bodies and no paywall gating.
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आइतबार बिहान नेपालको बूढीगण्डकी नदी प्रणालीमा विनाशकारी आकस्मिक बाढी आएको छ। गोरखा जिल्लाको चुम्चेत नजिकै पहिरोले नदी थुनिएर बनेको अस्थायी ब…
प्रधानमन्त्री बालेन्द्र शाहले न्युयोर्कमा संयुक्त राष्ट्रसंघको ८१औँ महासभालाई सम्बोधन गर्दै गत साउन २६ गतेको भोटेकोशी बाढीलाई "विश्वका लागि …
रसुवाको भोटेकोशी नदीमा आएको विनाशकारी बाढीपछि फेला परेका शवहरूको पहिचान गर्न नेपाल प्रहरीले डीएनए परीक्षण र नमुना संकलन कार्यलाई तीव्र बनाएक…
नेपाल र चीनको सीमा क्षेत्रमा हिमताल फुट्दा आएको विनाशकारी बाढी र पहिरोमा परी मृत्यु हुनेको संख्या १,००० नाघेको छ। प्रधानमन्त्री बालेन्द्र शा…
नेपालमा आएको विनाशकारी बाढीका कारण जलविद्युत आयोजनाको सुरुङभित्र फसेका दुई मजदुरलाई नौ दिनपछि जीवितै उद्धार गरिएको छ। नेपाली सेनाले हिलोले प…
नेपालमा आएको विनाशकारी बाढीपछि नुवाकोटको देवीघाट गाउँमा भएको व्यापक क्षतिको ड्रोन फुटेज सार्वजनिक भएको छ। भिडियोमा बाढीले क्षतिग्रस्त घर, पस…
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Yi-Shan Lo returns to Nepal to follow the route of her best friend’s ill-fated hike in a harrowing but cathartic documentary A work of deep personal reckoning, Yi-Shan Lo’s debut documentary feature opens with closeups of the film-maker’s own footsteps as she trudges through a snowbound landscape. Her jagged movement mirrors the rugged trajectory of the film itself, which grapples with a harrowing tragedy. In 2017, Lo was about to join her best friends Chun and Yueh on their hiking trip across Nepal when she came down with a sudden illness; she decided to stay behind while the other two carried on. Disaster struck: the pair went missing during a heavy snowstorm and were not found for more than 40 days. Yueh survived, but Chun died from lack of food coupled with hypothermia. Struggling to make sense of these events, Lo painstakingly retraces the days leading up to and during her friends’ disappearance. She pores over old text messages, Chun’s diaries and footage captured by the Nepali rescue team. These materials shed some light on the ordeal, as well as the pair’s backgrounds. Diving into her personal archive, Lo recalls her burgeoning friendship with Chun at their Catholic girls’ school, where the latter defiantly resisted the institution’s rigid dress codes. Considering Chun’s efforts to express his non-conforming identity and his use of male pronouns, it is even more devastating that he was repeatedly misgendered in death by various news reports. Continue reading...
Landslide blocks river and triggers downstream flooding, while summer temperatures persist in Portugal Flash floods have swept through Nepal’s central Gorkha district after a pre-dawn landslide on 11 October blocked the Budhi Gandaki River, triggering severe downstream flooding. At least five people have died, and almost 100 have been rescued. Two villages in the worst-affected Chumanubri rural municipality were reportedly destroyed, with homes, roads and bridges washed away. Part of a hydropower station was also damaged. After river levels surged from 2 metres to nearly 8.5 metres within hours, the national disaster risk reduction and management authority reported that 204 homes were damaged, and more than 650 people had been affected. More than 100 foreign trekkers were stranded in the popular hiking region. The floods come just two months after catastrophic flooding and landslides devastated parts of the country on the border with Tibet, leaving thousands dead or missing. Continue reading...
A flash flood smashed into the Soti Khola Bridge in Nepal on Sunday, causing it to buckle and be swept down the Budhi Gandaki River in the second bout of flooding to wreak havoc on the region in a matter of months. Bystanders captured the moment the floods caused the bridge in the Gorkha district to collapse, about 60 miles west of Kathmandu Continue reading...
Genden Phuntsok brings charm and innocence to his portrayal of Tenzing Norgay, while Tom Hiddleston is suitably frank as Edmund Hillary Here is a well intentioned, watchable, if sometimes soft-edged film with some NatGeo production values and greenscreen jeopardy on high mountain peaks. The subject is the triumphant Mount Everest expedition of 1953, in which the ultimate ascent was achieved by Nepalese-Indian mountaineer Tenzing Norgay and New Zealander Edmund Hillary. Tenzing, a former Sherpa guide whose unparalleled knowledge of the mountain and exemplary climbing skills earned him promotion to full team member, is played here by Tibetan actor Genden Phuntsok, while Hillary is robustly portrayed by Tom Hiddleston. Screenwriter Luke Davies and director Jennifer Peedom have the decent aim of restoring Tenzing’s achievement to the centre of the narrative, a tale which at the time was resoundingly claimed for Hillary and the British empire: a glorious redemption of Scott’s Antarctic ordeal 41 years earlier and a sign of divine approval for the imminent coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Continue reading...
Up to 300mm of rain could fall in places, while extreme downpours bring deadly landslides to Nepal Torrential rain and potentially damaging flooding are forecast in eastern Spain over the coming days, as cold upper air moves over the warm, humid surface air of the Mediterranean Sea, fuelling violent, slow-moving thunderstorms near Spain’s east coast. The weather pattern, known as a Dana, occurs most often in autumn. Models show more than 100mm of rain could fall across the region on Friday, with 200-300mm possible in some areas. Cities including Valencia and Castelló de la Plana, with Valencia having experienced several damaging floods in recent years, are most at risk. Continue reading...
Amir Bar-Lev’s doc covering competing climbers trying to achieve something that has not been done before uncovers a fascinating tapestry of ambition and folly During the Covid pandemic in 2021, a “last first” in mountaineering was achieved: the forbidding K2 mountain was scaled in winter for the first time. Amir Bar-Lev’s mountain-climbing doc tells the story of the competing climbers simultaneously hoping to reach the summit, several of whom do not survive the attempt. Far from being the straightforward survival-against-the-odds account that you might expect, this is a microcosm of some of humanity’s more regrettable traits, which rub up alongside each other in fascinatingly thorny ways. To take just one example: the Nepalese push for the summit comes at the cost of sacrificing the chummy camaraderie among the international climbers; but then again, Nepal is a nation rich in indigenous mountaineering expertise that has been relegated for decades to the role of humble assistant in a series of records set by foreigners. On the other hand, did all the climbers in the Nepalese team get equal credit, or was the lion’s share of the glory allotted to Nirmal Purja, AKA Nims, the Nepalese social media rock star who spoke fluent English and knew how to craft a headline-worthy soundbite? (In a further strange twist, Nims was killed in an avalanche this year in between the film’s world premiere at Sundance and wider release.) Did Nims’ record disrupt old patterns of privilege, subtly reinforce them in new ways – or both? Continue reading...
Kalpana Nepali was seven months pregnant when the catastrophic flash floods hit last month, while Pooja Pariyal spent three days on a hospital roof waiting to be rescued. Now, they are living precariously in temporary shelters For three days, Pooja Pariyal waited on the roof of Trishuli hospital with her three-month-old daughter, Ridhika. On the ground below and around the building, most of her town had been destroyed and churned into a sea of mud in the catastrophic flash floods that surged through the Himayalan border region of Nepal and Tibet in August. “Those three days were living hell for me, with no food, no working toilet and no one to help with the baby,” she says. “I had nothing to clean my baby’s soiled clothes. My milk supply had reduced because I was hungry and this poor little thing would cry her lungs out. Continue reading...
Shah said Nepal’s recovery and reconstruction needs were estimated at about 10% of GDP, as he appealed for more international support Nepal’s prime minister scolded world leaders at the UN on Thursday, saying last month’s catastrophic deadly flood was a reminder that climate change keeps hurting people who didn’t cause the crisis. The disaster “was a warning to the world,” Balendra Shah told the general assembly. “And I ask you today: Have you really heard that warning?” Continue reading...
New research links last month’s disaster to fossil fuel pollution. Supporting disaster-hit countries must be at the centre of climate politics Following a familiar pattern, coverage of the glacier collapse on the Nepal-Tibet border three weeks ago has subsided with the initial shock. But while the world’s attention has shifted, Nepal remains in the midst of an appalling tragedy. As well as at least 1,300 people who are known to have been killed, more than 5,000 are missing, some of them trapped in tunnels linked to the 13 hydropower plants that were damaged by the floods. On Wednesday four bodies were recovered from one of these tunnels, with searches ongoing. Families of the missing people are desperate for news. Last week the country’s foreign minister, Shisir Khanal, said that it would ask the UN’s loss and damage fund for $20m (£15m) towards a total rebuilding cost of around $5bn (£3.75bn) – including the replacement of up to 20,000 homes. The first academic study linking the disaster to the climate crisis will now be added to that application. Scientists at Imperial College London, along with international collaborators on the World Weather Attribution project, found that a number of drivers of the glacier fall had been made worse by atmospheric heating. While not the sole cause, fossil fuel pollution was judged to have destabilised the geology of the mountain environment. Continue reading...
Scientists say global heating was a destabilising factor in collapse of 200,000 sq metre glacier in August Climate breakdown probably weakened the glacier that collapsed causing catastrophic floods and killing hundreds of people in Nepal and Tibet last month, the first scientific study of the disaster has found. Researchers identified unusually warm conditions before the glacier’s collapse, which sent an avalanche of 110m cubic metres (3,885 cu ft) of snow and ice into the valley below. This triggered flash floods on an almost unprecedented scale, hitting communities downstream without warning. Continue reading...
Facebook groups are checking information from family and friends of the missing against Nepal’s police database in a task where success is bittersweet at best Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast A chain of flowers tattooed from knee to foot, a gold nose ring worn on a left nostril, a primary school tie caked in mud: these are the images that linger in Sonia Patil’s mind as she tries to help Nepali flood victims find their loved ones. More than 1,300 have died and at least 5,500 have been reported missing since a glacial collapse sent a torrent of water, mud, ice and debris through riverside communities along the Nepal-Tibet border on 26 August. Continue reading...
Foreign minister Shisir Khanal tells the Guardian the world’s biggest economies need to help Nepal, which contributes less than 0.1% of global greenhouse gas emissions Nepal is demanding $20m in climate compensation for the recent devastating floods, as a senior minister called on the world’s most polluting countries to “wake up” and accept shared responsibility for a disaster that led to the death or disappearance of more than 6,000 people. Scientists believe the climate crisis had a role to play in the floods, which were triggered when a melting glacier partially collapsed and set off a deadly landslide and flash flooding through Chinese-controlled Tibet and Nepal in late August. So far, more than 1,300 are confirmed dead and more than 5,500 still missing, with hopes of their survival diminished after 12 days of rescue operations. Continue reading...
Chinese man at Trishuli hydropower project and Nepali woman in Nuwakot found 10 days into rescue operation Emergency responders rescued a Chinese man and a Nepali woman in two separate operations on Saturday, as authorities continued to search for thousands of people missing 10 days after massive floods hit Nepal. The Nepali military said a joint team comprising personnel from its army and South Korean disaster experts rescued the man from a tunnel in the Upper Trishuli-1 hydropower project, and that he was undergoing a health assessment. Pictures showed him being evacuated by helicopter after being carried out of the tunnel. Continue reading...
Arnold Dix, an Australian engineer and geologist who worked at Ground Zero after 9/11, says finding two workers alive in Trishuli 3A ‘gives us hope’ There is renewed hope amid the devastation wreaked by the flash flooding disaster on the Nepal-Tibet border as the world witnesses “one of the great rescues of the 21st century”. Nine days after the deadly floods, two workers were pulled out alive from a flooded hydropower tunnel in Nepal. Continue reading...
In this week’s newsletter: The full scale of the disaster is still emerging, but as rescue efforts continue, scientists warn that a warming Himalayas could mean more deadly hazards • Don’t get Down to Earth delivered to your inbox? Sign up here At 8.37am local time last Wednesday, a huge mass of rock and ice sheared free from a mountain, sliding 1,200 metres to the valley floor in Nepal’s Langtang national park, about 60km north of the country’s capital, Kathmandu. Horrifying images and videos soon emerged of a torrent of mud, water and debris that swept down the Lhende Khola valley at speeds approaching 150km/h. Flowing down the Lhende Khola, Bhotekoshi and Trishuli rivers that run between Tibet and Nepal, the flood water swept away homes, roads, bridges and power plants. Along the Trishuli, water levels rose by as much as nine metres in half an hour. As of the time of writing, the death toll of the disaster approached 1,000 people, with more than 4,400 on both sides of the border missing. Continue reading...
Vision from the Nepali army shows Sanjay Shah covered in mud and being carried from the site on a rescuer’s shoulder. He was one of two people who have been pulled out alive from a hydropower tunnel in Nepal nine days after deadly flash floods left them trapped Nepal-Tibet flash flood: Two workers pulled alive from hydropower tunnel nine days after disaster Continue reading...
Officials say pair were rescued from Trishuli 3A hydropower tunnel in Nepal after being trapped in depth of 170 metres Two people have been pulled out alive from a hydropower tunnel in Nepal nine days after deadly flash floods buried the projects in deep mud and left them trapped. The workers were rescued during an ongoing operation at the Trishuli 3A tunnel, a hydropower project in one of the areas worst-affected by last week’s deadly Nepal floods, according to army spokesperson Brig Gen Raja Ram Basnet. Continue reading...
After last week’s devastating floods, the Guardian’s south Asia correspondent, Hannah Ellis-Petersen, tells Annie Kelly about her journey to some of Nepal’s worst-hit areas, and what she found there More than a week after a melting glacier crashed into the valley below, triggering devastating floods across Nepal, some of the worst-hit places remain almost entirely cut off. Reachable only by treacherous, single-lane mud tracks, areas such as Betrawati and Rasuwa have lost whole communities – and authorities are still working to assess the true toll of the crisis. This week, the Guardian’s south Asia correspondent, Hannah Ellis-Petersen, along with photographer Ahmer Khan and journalist Gaurav Pokharel, made the journey to the frontline of the disaster to see the devastation first-hand, and to speak to the people whose lives, homes and loved ones have been lost in the floods. Continue reading...
There are 36 Australians among the thousands of people missing as rescue efforts continue after deadly flash floods on the Nepal-Tibet border Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast The number of Australians missing in the Nepal-Tibet flash flooding disaster has fallen to 36, after two further people were confirmed safe on Friday. It comes after five previously unaccounted for Australians were confirmed safe earlier this week, with one found in Nepal, one in Tibet and three outside the crisis-hit area. A Sydney woman, Cara Severino, 25, was also safely located in Nepal more than two days after the 26 August floods. Continue reading...
Prof Lyla Mehta says the glacial floods and loss of life are a stark reminder that climate disruption is global and highly unequal. Plus letters from Lynda McDonald and Jan Bengtsson The recent glacial collapse and catastrophic floods in Nepal and Tibet are not isolated tragedies (Report, 28 August). They reflect accelerating climate disruption that disproportionately affects the countries and people that are least responsible for global emissions. As climate change intensifies, glaciers around the world, including in the Himalayas, are melting at unprecedented rates, destabilising ecosystems and causing glacial collapse and ice-and-rock landslides, destroying settlements, villages and livelihoods in minutes. No one died when a Swiss glacier collapsed last year, owing to early-warning systems that were in place. But a lack of early-warning systems means that the disaster in Nepal and Tibet has led to hundreds of deaths and thousands missing. Continue reading...
