After the devastating floods in Nepal, Chandika Kumari Shrestha’s family believed she had died. They began mourning her passing, but ten days later, rescuers discovered her alive in her collapsed home in Betrawati village. She had managed to survive in a small air pocket amidst the water and mud.
Police officer Mahendra Darnal described how Shrestha was found in her house, which had been swept away by the floods and left in the midst of quicksand. After hearing her cries for help, the rescue team located her in a confined space and safely transported her to an army hospital.
Despite being among the many missing individuals in Betrawati, Shrestha’s miraculous survival story emerged as crews worked tirelessly to recover numerous bodies in the flood-affected area. The town’s market and residential buildings, some towering four storeys high, were buried under debris, contributing to the tragic loss of over 1,300 lives in Nepal, with thousands still unaccounted for.
Rescue efforts continued as workers dug through the rubble, blowing whistles to signal any survivors trapped beneath the collapsed structures. Just days earlier, 24 bodies were discovered in a decomposed state in Betrawati’s market area, underscoring the scale of the disaster.
Approximately 5,000 individuals remain missing following the glacial collapse and subsequent floods. In the aftermath, bodies have been found along river banks far from the disaster site, prompting mass burials for unidentified remains in distant areas like Chitwan.
As authorities persevere in their search for survivors, they have extracted three individuals from tunnels, including a Chinese citizen near the Trishuli river, where many are believed to be trapped. Stories of resilience like Shrestha’s and an eight-year-old boy reuniting with his mother provide glimmers of hope amidst the ongoing tragedy.