Death Toll Nears 600, Nearly 1,000 Still Missing as Nepal Rejects Foreign Rescue Teams, Seeks Cash Aid Instead
A catastrophic glacial debris flow and flash flood struck Nepal’s Rasuwa district near the China border on August 26, triggered by a rapid slope failure involving a glacier in Langtang National Park, with the debris flow travelling nearly 100 km. The disaster has claimed 579 lives, with nearly 1,000 people still missing, per Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s letter to PM Modi.
Stranded Indians: Around 320 Indian nationals remain uncontactable, per the Ministry of External Affairs, while Nepal’s missing list includes 178 Indians, many on pilgrimage or tourist trips.
Kharge’s Appeal: Kharge has written to PM Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah urging intensified rescue efforts, safe return arrangements, and NDRF deployment.
India’s Help: India has offered a tunnel rescue team, a medical team, and NDRF units, alongside 47.5 tonnes of emergency supplies already dispatched.
Nepal’s Reservations: Nepal’s government has declined rescue-team offers from India, China, the US, UK, Japan, South Korea, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, citing coordination problems from the 2015 earthquake response. It instead wants cash contributions via a “one-door mechanism,” with reconstruction aid sought later.
First major Crisis for New Nepal Govt.: 36-year-old PM Balendra “Balen” Shah, who took office this year on a Gen Z anti-establishment wave, personally inspected the worst-hit Nuwakot district the day after the disaster , his young government’s first major crisis test.
Nepal Govt’s Plans: The Cabinet has directed the Finance Ministry to draft a relief-and-rehabilitation package for affected individuals and businesses, decided all ministers will donate a month’s salary to the PM’s Disaster Relief Fund, and approved government-to-government purchase of 25,000 MT of DAP fertiliser from India. Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle warns reconstruction could cost “a few billion dollars.
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