An avalanche triggered by a glacier collapse has caused widespread destruction and significant casualties in Nepal and the adjoining Tibetan region, officials reported. The disaster has devastated infrastructure including at least 19 bridges and 38 kilometers of roads, along with schools and hydropower plants, according to Nepali authorities.
Chinese officials confirmed three fatalities in Tibet, where over 500 people remain unaccounted for. The Chinese state news agency Xinhua highlighted substantial casualties at the Gyirong port of entry, a key border crossing. China’s President Xi Jinping has directed local authorities to exhaust all efforts in locating and rescuing those missing.
The avalanche presents a severe test for Nepal’s recently installed government, led by Prime Minister Balendra Shah, a former rapper and the country’s mayor, who rose to power last year through a youth-driven protest movement. The Nepalese army has deployed 12 helicopters to aid rescue operations, established a temporary hospital near the flood zone, and evacuated at least 25 critically injured individuals to Kathmandu.
Nepal’s Education Minister Sasmit Pokharel said the government has requested assistance from neighboring China and India to support rescue and relief efforts. The largest group of missing persons—at least 100 individuals—are Indian nationals who were undertaking a pilgrimage to Mt. Kailash in Tibet, a site sacred to many Hindus as the abode of the god Shiva.
Among those missing are 77 people who were part of tours managed by the Indian spiritual leader Sadhguru’s foundation. Sadhguru indicated via social media that these individuals were at an immigration center on the Nepal-Tibet border when the disaster struck and that the foundation was collaborating with authorities on rescue initiatives.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended condolences to Prime Minister Shah and pledged humanitarian aid. The Indian Embassy in Nepal is actively cooperating with Nepali officials on relief efforts. Modi expressed solidarity with the Nepalese people during this crisis.
Experts point to climate change as a likely factor accelerating the glacier’s collapse, though they emphasized that a definitive cause has yet to be determined. The region is no stranger to such calamities; a similar glacier burst in 2021 caused severe flooding and over 100 deaths in the Indian state of Uttarakhand.
Tenzing Chogyal Sherpa, a scholar specializing in Himalayan atmospheric and hydrological systems, called the event one of the most devastating floods witnessed in the region and warned that it serves as a stark reminder of the growing climate threats facing communities in the Himalayan valleys.