Nepal urges villagers along Budhi Gandaki to evacuate after landslide-triggered flood in Gorkha

Authorities in Nepal’s Gorkha district have asked villagers living along the Budhi Gandaki river to move to safety after a landslide-triggered flood on Sunday, 11 October. Houses and bridges were swept away, and local media reported four people unaccounted for.

What happened

Reports say a landslide blocked the Budhi Gandaki river near Chumnubri in Gorkha, about 100 km west of Kathmandu, causing flooding downstream. Chumnubri Rural Municipality chief administrative officer Narayan Sapkota said water began rising around 4 am. He said the Ugylung and Syar streams also surged, and that the landslide dam may have been breached. The cause is still under investigation, according to The Tribune.

Gorkha Chief District Officer Dharmendra Kumar Mishra said preliminary reports pointed to a landslide above Siuribas.

Evacuation call and alerts

Mishra said: “We have asked villagers living along the river banks downstream to evacuate and remain safe.” The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority urged people to move at-risk residents to safe locations in time.

Alerts were issued for residents of Gorkha, Tanahun, Chitwan, East Nawalparasi and West Nawalparasi districts. The authority’s flood forecasting section sent a warning at 6:40 am local time, telling people to stay away from the river up to Trishuli Dobhan. Residents of Chumling and Lokpa left their homes as the water rose, and police in Arughat used loudspeakers to urge riverside residents to move.

Damage and missing people

• Several houses and two suspension bridges were swept away, and a hydroelectric project was damaged, according to Reuters-based reports.
• Mishra told ANI that five to seven houses in the Jagat riverbed were swept away, with a few more reportedly lost downstream.
• The Kathmandu Post reported four people living in a shed on the banks of the Ungilung river in Chumnubri-6 as unaccounted for since early Sunday.
• Army and police personnel reached the area and monitored it from a helicopter.

Villager Sherap Gurung told the Kathmandu Post that residents could not even find the shed and that the search was continuing.

The reports differ on casualties. Mishra said no casualties had been reported “till now”, while the Kathmandu Post cited local accounts of four unaccounted for. Official confirmation of the missing was not available in the sources reviewed.

Fresh flood threat and India

The Tribune said officials were still gathering updates and suspected a possible blockage of the river’s flow in Chekampar. None of the reports reviewed described a specific forecast of a further flood, beyond the ongoing alerts for downstream districts.

None of the sources reviewed mentioned any impact on India or any alert for Indian rivers in Bihar or Uttar Pradesh.

Sources: The Kathmandu Post, Arab News, The Tribune, Deccan Herald.