At least eight people have been killed and hundreds are missing after an avalanche of ice and rock triggered catastrophic flash flooding across parts of Nepal on Wednesday, destroying villages and vital infrastructure.
Authorities confirmed 384 tourists are missing. According to local media reports, these include 105 Indian nationals, 12 from the United Kingdom, four from South Africa, 17 from Malaysia and three from the USA. One each from Australia and the Netherlands has also been reported missing.
Bhotekoshi River bursts its banks
The Bhotekoshi River burst its banks at approximately 9am on Wednesday, obliterating numerous villages alongside roads and hydroelectric facilities, officials confirmed.
Warnings were issued to residents of several Nepali districts, urging them to keep clear of the banks of the Bhotekoshi, Trishuli, and Narayani rivers.
"We have asked both India and China to help us with the rescue efforts," stated Sasmit Pokharel, a spokesperson for the Nepali government.
Hardest-hit district and climate link
The hardest-hit region, Rasuwa district, experienced comparable flash flooding to incidents last August, when a glacial lake in neighbouring Tibet overflowed due to elevated temperatures in the mountainous area. Nine lives were lost and crucial infrastructure, including a bridge linking the two nations, sustained damage during that event.
Climate specialists at the Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development suggest that an avalanche from a glacier probably triggered Wednesday's flash flood.
The Lhende Khola River, a tributary of the Bhotekoshi River, experienced peak flooding on Wednesday, they confirmed. "The Lhende Khola has flooded twice in fourteen months, this time triggered by an ice rock avalanche from a glacier on the Nepal side that blocked the river and released a sudden surge downstream," said Saswata Sanyal, a disaster risk reduction specialist at the climate research group.
"In a warming Himalaya, early warning is the first line of adaptation," he added.
Rising temperatures in the Himalaya
The Himalayan region, spanning Nepal and neighbouring nations including India, faces heightened susceptibility to torrential rainfall, flooding and landslides, as the area is experiencing temperature rises at a faster pace than the global average due to man-made climate change.
Studies have demonstrated that extreme weather phenomena, including heatwaves, intense precipitation and glacial melting, have become increasingly common across the region.
Scientists at the Kathmandu-based research organisation discovered earlier this year that glaciers throughout the Hindu Kush Himalaya region are disappearing at an increasingly rapid pace, with rates of ice loss having doubled since 2000, driven predominantly by escalating global temperatures and climate change.
