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Dozens of Americans are among the missing and feared dead in Nepal after flash floods and mudslides decimated parts of the country. Laurie Perez reports.
CBS LA
Aug 26, 2026

Dozens of Americans are among the missing and feared dead in Nepal after flash floods and mudslides decimated parts of the country. Laurie Perez reports.

China Flood Disaster: Huge Debris Surge Hits Nepal Border in Tibet | World
Asianet News English
Aug 26, 2026

A massive flood and debris surge struck the China-Nepal border in Tibet, with terrifying CCTV footage showing people fleeing as floodwaters and debris overwhelmed Gyirong Port.

The disaster followed a reported ice-rock avalanche/glacial collapse near the Lhende Khola, sending huge amounts of water, mud and debris downstream toward the China-Nepal border and Nepal’s Rasuwa district.

Chinese authorities launched rescue operations in the affected Tibetan region, while Gyirong County and Gyirong Port were severely impacted. The disaster has also triggered a major search for missing people on both sides of the border.

The exact mechanism behind the flooding remains under investigation. Current reporting points toward an ice-rock or glacial collapse that blocked the Lhende Khola, rather than definitively confirming a conventional glacial lake outburst flood.

Watch the terrifying CCTV footage from the China-Nepal border and see how the disaster unfolded.

Nepal Flood CCTV Captures Terrifying Mudslide At Jilong Port, Buildings VANISH In Seconds
Oneindia News
Premiered Aug 26, 2026 #NepalFlood #TibetFlood #NepalTibetBorder

CCTV footage from Jilong Port on the Nepal-Tibet border captures the terrifying moment a massive flash flood and mudslide suddenly tears through the border facility on August 26, 2026. What begins as a calm morning quickly turns into chaos as a towering wall of mud, water, and debris rushes down from the mountainous terrain, engulfing buildings, vehicles, and the surrounding area within seconds. People can be seen desperately running for safety as the destructive torrent overwhelms the entire complex, leaving the camera surrounded by thick mud, dust, and debris. The shocking footage highlights the extreme speed and devastating force of the disaster in the mountainous border region.

Nepal: Warnings of second flood with 1,400 people missing
Channel 4 News
Aug 27, 2026

Flash floods in Nepal and Tibet have left a horrifying trail of destruction, with around 1,400 people missing and at least 389 confirmed dead. Some bodies were found hundreds of miles from the disaster zone and experts warn a newly-formed lake could trigger another flood.

There is a desperate race to find any more survivors, as climate experts also try to understand how the disaster happened.

With roads and bridges destroyed, getting to the affected areas is proving slow and power is out in many places. Those flying in describe whole settlements simply gone, with no idea how to find the people who were there. As well as those who lived in the valley, there are hundreds of foreign tourists still missing.



Transcript

Chapter 1: Warnings of second flood in Nepal as 1,400 missing It was a thundering torrent, not just of water, but of mud, rock, and ice. Oh my god. Oh my god. Mario.

A cascading wall of destruction. These Nepoese men could only survive by running for their lives. They've seen flooding here before, but never this sheer volume of water. And it takes time for the man filming this to realize that it could kill him.

The water scoops up more flying debris, smashing into anything in its path. And the man sprints for the safety of higher ground. The terrifying scene before him lasts not just for a few seconds, but for minutes on end. And the devastation it causes stretches for 40 miles.

Emerging from the mud is a man rescued against the odds. Hundreds of Nepalese died when their bodies were swept away. After the deluge, this woman was scooped up by a digger. She's frail and shell shocked after being submerged for we don't know how long.

Not just bridges, but roads, dams, and power lines have been washed away and torn apart. In steep Himalayan valleys already so remote, that rescuing people from this raging monster is incredibly difficult. At this hospital in Catmandeue, the doctors were expecting more patients. Then they realized that only helicopters were capable of fing survivors here.

Outside, relatives are desperate for news, but there is none. Giving the names of those they are missing is all they can do. In our last conversation, my husband said he was sending walnuts and chocolates for the children. He also sent some instant noodles for them.

He said he would be coming soon, but he didn't come.

Hundreds of foreign tourists are missing, including over 30 from the UK. Many of them were on a pilgrimage to Mount Kailash in Tibet. It's the spiritual home of the Hindu god Shiva and a site revered by Buddhists and James alike.

The Chinese keep the Tibetan border post under video surveillance. And in this shot you can see travelers running from the disaster which is about to befall them. 3 minutesLiterally the entire group was there in the building. This is a a terrible and an extraordinary event.

There was no heavy rainfall to cause this extreme outburst of natural violence. Scientists are pointing to a collapsing glacia triggering the equivalent of an ocean tsunami. On the Chinese side of the border, the neat lines of rescue workers shown on state television are in stark contrast with the calamity itself. China has controlled Tibet since the 1950s.

Videos of the disaster there have been censored with the focus on saving lives instead. Back in Nepal, gaps in the mud where homes once stood. And the Bakosi River now looks like an innocent bystander. Its waters deceptively placid.

But villages have been wiped out and help is slow to arrive. While upstream from here, another vast pool of water is trapped by debris and at risk of bursting its banks. Jonathan Rugman. Well, CNN's correspondent Hanako Montgomery is on the ground in the Nuacott district in Nepal and sent this report.

Chapter 2: Extent of lives lost ‘immeasurable’ So over there in the distance is the Tricuri River, which is the river that flooded and killed we now know over a hundred people and left hundreds more missing. And if you can take a look over here, there is just a massive layer of mud and debris over what used to be green rice fields. This all used to be Green Valley and now it's just covered in debris and in mud. And just behind me here, a team of police officers have arrived.

They're ascertaining the extent of damage and they're speaking to local villagers about who might need rescuing, who might need some assistance. Uh we're told that the local mayor is also here to provide the police with more information. And I just want to show you just how extensive this damage was. I mean, you can tell here just even on this road, at least over a 100 meters away from the actual river.

You can see the mud has come up. It's blocked off parts of the road. We can't actually go any further than this because the extent of damage is just that bad. We're told that if we were try to to go further, it could be a risk to our lives.

So, we're staying here for now. But the extent of economic damage, the extent of lives lost is just immeasurable at the moment. And of course, Nepal, the government still trying to ascertain just how many people have died and still trying to rescue those who might need in desperate desperate need of assistance. Chapter 3: ‘Everything has been swept away’ Well, earlier I spoke to Saga Pande, who's chief executive of the Himalayan Glacia Adventure and Travel Company.

40 of their guests and seven staff members are missing. And I began by asking him who was in the group and where were they going? Well, that's uh there were the you know multinationals and Nepalese including Australian, Americans, Canadian, Singaporean and UK nationals and uh there were total 47 people so far and they were heading uh to the Tibet regions and actually they were going for the pilgrim tour to Mount Kelas. And so the last you heard from them was 8:00 in the morning.

What has happened to the area that they were in? I tried to contact them and I got the information 8:45 the flood happened because I sent the one chopper with the their passports and the visas and then they could not land and then they returned back and then I knew that I I tried to call the my crew members and the you know tourist who been with the team and other locals and the hotel owners as well And so none of them been contacted. So and I was so scared and then a lot of news start coming out. And what has happened to the hotel itself where they were yesterday in 3:00 I took the chopper and I went there to spot the area where they stayed.

I didn't find the any location of the hotels. It is all flat. It's just gone. Yeah, it's just gone.

Everything has been swept away. The biggest thing is that the plot was high raised above the you know like almost like 100 feet above the road. So that's why and people didn't have a chance to survive and even there is not a way to run up uh to the mountain because there was some some area which was favorable for the 100 peoples could escape uh from one small town up to the hills. So they are saved.

Do do you think the people in the hotel would have had any place to try and escape to higher ground? Before I reach there, I was thinking like that way. But once I reach from the chopper and see the views on the ground and see the devastated, you know, landscape and I cannot uh believe and I cannot expect that. And were there any soldiers there there in that location?

Are they trying to look for people or dig for people? Yesterday and today they are doing the search and rescue operation and there were the you know different security camps like uh Nepal police and military and armed force because every one of them are are out of the contact. So and so locally is not there any you know security to do that job and only from Katwandu and the nearest town you know government is uh trying to send them to find the possible alive people bring back you know safe region and how high are the fears that there could be another flash flood that more of this glacia could break off news is coming from the Chinese official that there is a big you know water level is rising in the lake. They have given the prediction within a week that might be the another burst can happen and what are you saying to the families of those people who are missing?

I mean what are you able to tell them? Well that's we are telling them be optimistic still that we have not found any dead bodies and then you know still the site rescue is underway. I think when the time is passing, none of my staff also in contact to me and any of their families that's that's a scary part. The speed of the flash flood is unimaginable and as well as it is the high-rise flash flood.

So that's why they didn't have a chance even to you know running up to the heels. Saka Pande, thank you very much. You're welcome. Thank you.

Well, Puro Shot Katri is a reporter for the rising Nepal newspaper who's just returned to Kathmandu this evening from the scene of the flooding. He joins me Chapter 4: Reporter describes scenes of devastation after flash flooding now. Thank you very much for coming on our program. This must be very very hard for all of you.

When you went there today, what did you see that you will never be able to forget? Thank you. Thank you for this opportunity, this platforms. m.

m. m. m. on Friday.

But according to the latest report that government of Nepal according to the national disaster reductions and management authority has what has reported is that as of Thursday midnight Nepal has suffered a total of um 389 lives lives of Nepali citizens including some foreigners who have gone to their pilgrimage site and and out of them 910 have have so far been reported missing and and and as of Thursday, right? Sorry to interrupt you. Do those do those numbers strike you as very low because from the from the from the anecdotal reports and the scenes of destruction, many people are saying that the actual numbers of missing and dead could be much much higher. Yeah, actually actual number of missing citizens can go much much higher or it may be of of 12 to,300 or 1,700 as of today.

m. and the government has only said that so far 389 bodies have been recovered and 910 people have been missing. so far but uh what I can observe from the crime from the sport that the that the devastating side that um over 12 to500 people have still been missing on the on the site. So the recovery of the bodies will be very difficult, won't it?

Because one one because they're in tmbed inside the mud and also there's just not enough help to dig them out at the moment. Yeah. What do you say to that? Yeah.

Yeah. Of course. Of course. The recovery chances of the of the people and of the of the bodies have has gone difficult because the debris or the rubble that was accumulated on the river bank side is almost up to up to twotory building which twotory houses building has already been blanketed or covered by the rubble.

So it's it's gonna almost so so difficult and tough tasks to the rescue team of the government of Nepal. Indeed. We're going to leave it there. Thank you very much for your time for a short country.

Thank you. Thank you. All the best. Well, 33 UK citizens are amongst the hundreds of foreign tourists, pilgrims, and workers still Chapter 5: UK Nepalese community reacts to disaster missing.

The youngest Britons are thought to be a 13-year-old girl and a 14-year-old boy. The UK has strong ties with Nepal and says it is sending5 million pounds of aid as well as search and rescue teams. But for Nepalese communities here, the disaster has hit very hard. Here's Francis Reed.

In North London, they gather to remember those who've died and to pray for those who are still missing. The Nepalese community here in Barnett is long established and even thousands of miles away, this catastrophe is very close to home. Very shocking news. When I had a first um uh clip of the video from my sister and I was thinking it was some kind of joke.

Then after that I've received a lots and lots of videos and which is absolutely shocking for our community, for myself. This afternoon they were practicing for the Nepali Mailor held in London every year which celebrates Nepal's culture and traditions. And this a song about looking for hope and meaning through difficulties. I was really shocked when I saw like the videos of all those people running away.

I felt really like sad. 33 British nationals are known to be among the more than 1,400 missing. many of them on organized tours. The youngest thought to be a 13year-old girl and a 14year-old boy.

There is surveillance from the air, including looking for signs of people who may be trapped underwater and in mud, but access has been difficult and information is still scant. Several travel companies have confirmed that British citizens were taking part in their tours. The region of northern Nepal and southern Tibet is visited by tourists and pilgrims alike. Thousands take part in the kaash manserova yatra every year.

A pilgrimage which has spiritual importance to Buddhists, Hindus and James and has also become popular for hiking, trekking and climbing. There is a rich history between Britain and Nepal. More than 250,000 girkers fought in World War II and the regiments still a unique part of the British army. In a statement this afternoon, the king reiterated the UK's strong, deep ties to this part of the world and that he had profound sympathy for those who'd lost their loved ones.

And that strong connection means continued high expectations for what Britain should now provide to Nepal. As international aid heads to the area, the foreign office here says it's giving consular support and that Britain will donate5 million pounds as well as help on the ground. In the past, Nepal has been there for Britain in our hour of need and we will be there for Nepal in its hour of need right now. So the immediate offer that the foreign secretary has relayed to the Nepalese government is an offer of first responders search and rescue support.

Britain excels in this and we're there and we're ready to be deployed. It is unimaginable to the point of disbelief, but when the scale of destruction is so large, it is the small gestures that people turn to in solidarity and in hope. Now, the disaster that struck the mountainous Nepal Tibeted border region was initially reported to have been caused by an earthquake. But climate Chapter 6: Experts say ‘glacial collapse’ may have caused floods experts at the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development say the event may have actually been caused by a glacial collapse near the Lang Lung Peak.

Now, with satellite images, we can see a large mass of glacia ice that appears to have detached from the mountain side. There we go. Triggering what is known as an ice avalanche. The enormous mass of ice then plunged thousands of feet moving northwest down the valley towards the Lend Cola River and then into the Baut Koshi River and finally into the Trishuli River.

Images taken before and after the event show the impact with the river obviously swollen from the surge of water, mud, and debris that rolled downstream and took everything with it. Now further downstream, scientists say that water levels on the Trishuli River rose by as much as 9 mters around 27 feet in just half an hour. Well, as the authorities grapple with search and rescue operations, Nepal's disaster management authority has warned of more flooding risks from the new lake that's formed on the border. Communities living downstream from the Bautosi River have been urged to move to safer ground amid concerns that the rising lake could burst.

Well, joining me now is Dr. C. Chapter 7: Why do glaciers collapse? Expert explains Scott Watson from the University of Leeds.

He's leader of the Glacial Lake Observatory for Flood Hazards impacted by climate change program and has been to Nepole nine times. I think it's good to have you on the program. This is your this is your expertise, right? So, first of all, explain it to me like I'm a 10-year-old.

Why do glacias collapse? Yeah. So, in this case, we have, you know, a significant volume of ice that's perched up on the mountain side. And they're in this situation because the climate's warming.

These glaciers are retreating, you know, further into these mountain catchments onto these precarious slopes. Um, and we know that also the landscapes are warming as the climate warms. So, the perafrost, the permanently frozen ground at these higher elevations is begins to thaw. Uh, and this is kind of like the glue that holds these landscapes together.

So when that starts to thaw, you know, we have melt water percolating through the glacia, through the rock, and it's much more likely for these glacias to then become unstable. So just to be clear, climate change, you think, has something to do with this. It's always very difficult initially to pinpoint and attribute specific events to climate change without much more analysis. But we see the general trend of climate warming and we see um an increasing frequency of similar style events to this as well.

Not just in Nepal but across the Himalaya. And is the reason why they thought it might have been an earthquake at first because the the release of energy was so enormous. The ground shook so much that they thought that's what it was. Absolutely.

Yeah. So I mean this mass of ice um and some of the estimates that I've seen they're talking about 100 million cubic meters of ice and rock that's cascaded down over a vertical kilometer. a huge amount of energy and that would have going straight down. Absolutely.

Hence more energy. Yes. Yeah. Um so that water's transitioned that ice has transitioned straight to water incorporating all that sediment and yeah there would have been significant ground shaking uh which yeah was initially reported as an earthquake.

So in those very steep valleys that we saw I mean the communities the roads the bridges they don't stand a chance do they? No. So yeah these valleys are really steep. Um and actually you know what we need is is a detailed flood hazard mapping in these valleys because you know that's something that's really lacking.

Um but yeah any any communities hydropower there's significant hydropower investment. This is a major trade route between Nepal and China. Um so yeah anything at the bottom of these valleys um you know is really in kind of harm's way. We talked about this other lake that's formed as a result of what's been happening maybe two lakes.

What's the danger there? Yeah absolutely. So the these lakes are formed behind the D. So there two there's two lakes.

Yeah. So there's one at the bottom of the initial collapse and then there's one kind of where the landslide intersected with the main valley. So essentially the the landslide has damned the river. There's damned all the melt water and that's accumulating behind to form these lakes and these could very easily over top.

So these are you know damned by unstable sediment which is going to cause potentially secondary flooding. So that will be really on kind of the mind of the Napoleon authorities and also the search and rescue teams working you know in these channels. And how likely is that that they will also collapse? These kind of features are fairly transient.

So you know it could outburst in a couple of days. It could be a couple of weeks. You know they could persist for a month or more. But the likelihood is that that dam will breach at some point.

you know it will become over topped because it's still accumulating significant volumes of melt water from from the catchment. So that valley is is I mean which has been very popular with tourists because it's not too far from Kapandu if you want to go hiking. Obviously as you said it's a major trading route between China and Nepal. That valley for now is kind of it you know it's uninhabitable presumably.

Yeah. So there's there's a single road going up that valley. So access is is extremely difficult you know to get excavators in there to you know with the search and rescue effort is very difficult. And this flood has deposited, you know, meters, tens of meters of sediment in the sets like cement, right?

The sets in some cases like yeah, like concrete. So it's extremely difficult to get through. You know, this will have a legacy impact in this landscape for years, decades to come. And any future flooding, so potentially from these lakes is at a much higher base level now.

You know, we have 10 mters, 20 mters in some cases of sediment that's deposited on the riverbed. So any flood that's coming down that valley is starting from a much higher position as well. And finally, is there any way of predicting that this thing might happen? I are there early warning signs that may have been picked up that should have been picked up.

We have a lot of satellite data where we can do uh monitoring. So, and that's one of the things that we're working on. The problem is we don't have the automatic systems kind of doing that at the moment. We have the data, but we're still developing the techniques to look at precursory kind of signals.

So, in this case, it could have been defamation. So, the glacia and the rock slip and we've seen this in previous events. There was an event in India in 2021 where we could see that precursory movement of the whole ice and the rock you know deforming before the event. So in that case you could have had potentially some early warning.

Grim stuff but fascinating. Professor Bolson, thanks very much indeed.

Debate With Arnab: Nepal Floods Highlights A Ticking Time Bomb At China’s Borders In Himalayas
Republic World
Aug 27, 2026 Arnab LIVE | Special Debate With Arnab Goswami

Flood Fury In Nepal-Tibet: Torrential Flooding Leaves A Trail Of Destruction, Displacement And Despair Across The Himalayan Region.

Nepal-Tibet floods LIVE: Massive floods have caused widespread destruction across the Himalayan region, leaving communities devastated and raising fears of further casualties.

Watch Arnab LIVE on Republic TV for the latest flood updates, rescue efforts, damage reports and the unfolding humanitarian crisis in Nepal and Tibet.



Transcript

It's time for Arnab Gowami on the debate. Arnab Gowami on the debate. Eight.

On the show tonight, why China is responsible [music] for what has happened in Nepal. And at 9:00 tonight, is it really a Congress hand behind Mamani, behind all the people there, behind all the wokes, behind all the anti-Hindu [music] groups, behind the propakistani groups? Is there a somewhere a Congress connection behind all this? I'd like to start with a commentary on what has happened in Nepal.

Now, as we all know, the rivers came down from Tibet and buried Nepal. We told about 172 dead, hundreds missing. We're really concerned that the numbers could be much higher, much higher. Now, I believe without a shred of doubt, and I've studied this subject, I believe that China is responsible.

China is trying to blame Nepal. But I think China had every inkling of what was likely to happen and China could have done everything to stop this disaster from happening. This disaster points to China. China must own up.

Five reasons. Reason number one, the obvious fact. The rivers originated in Tibet. The Lende Colola, the Bhote Koshi and the Trishuli all rise in the Girong county in Tibet and cross into Nepal only at Rasuagi.

Girong port on the Chinese side was struck before the water reached Nepal. Logically speaking, water does not run uphill. So, its origin sits above the border in China. China cannot look the other way.

The root cause of what has happened is in China. China must stop blaming a downstream country. Second, the infrastructure that is being built on that border area. Nepali journalists are saying that the Girong town and port were cut into the hills and built on the river's own course and own confluence driving the flood harder into Nepal.

This is typical Chinese infrastructure behavior with the least amount of care for other countries who will be impacted. There was an understanding that China would share glacial flood data across this border. But when the wall of water came, no warning reached the people downstream, including the policemen, the hundreds of people just swept away while warning others to move back. So the second reason was also very important.

China was building infrastructure that it knew will compromise Nepal but did not think once of how terrible a thing this is. Now I'd like to go to the third reason. 4 magnitude earthquake. 4 quake.

Ladies and gentlemen, this was not a quake. This was not normal seismic activity. 4 magnitude earthquake was reported first and then the US Geological Survey said there was no earthquake at all. The signal was the glacier itself breaking loose and the debris flow that followed.

So point is viewers the trigger that was first put out does not exist and no agency has closed the case on what broke the ice loose. Have no doubt about it. This is high level construction activity that has led to a breaking of the glacia which has led to what is seen to be a seismic activity which has led to the debris collecting breaking through and then leading to this flood. 5 minutes100% China is responsible for what has happened.

The fourth reason is that this is one of the most seasonmically active zones on earth and China is building right into it. China is building right into it. The eastern Himalaya and we should be very concerned in India because we should be concerned about Assam. We should be concerned.

We are also downstream country. The eastern Himalaya where the Indian and Eurasian plates collide carries the strongest and most frequent earthquakes in the region. China is now driving roads, a railway and border settlements right into that life seismic belt at a glacial altitude. So, China knows what it is doing but doesn't care about the impact.

And that is why what has happened in Nepal is a result of Chinese efforts. There is a clear Chinese hand. We all know what China did during COVID. We know where COVID originated.

You see the Chinese, they never own up. They never own up. The fifth reason is this massive Chinese ring road and rail plan. And this is an article in the South China Morning Post I have with me, ladies and gentlemen.

It says that China is building a 10,000 kilometer national border coast loop whose G219 highway runs through Tibet hard across the Nepal border alongside a planned railway pushed within 25 kilometers of Rasu Wandi. This is exactly the area which has been impacted. Exactly the area. This is heavy construction, permanent construction being forced through one of the most fragile high mountain regions in the planet.

Ladies and gentlemen, China even ignored its own scientists. This is not India's warning alone. China's own state supervised geologists in a study under the China Geological Survey had officially warned that the terrain of its Tibet mega projects has a loose structure and weak cohesion. Chinese official seismologists, geologists have said that earthquakes and fault activity make the slope collapse extremely easily triggered.

So Beijing was told by its own government scientists, do not do this. This ground cannot safely take what it is building. Still, despite that, China built it anyway. And that is why I showed this South China Morning Post article on July 12th, 2026.

This put out clear clear warnings against what China is doing. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm not making political points. I'm quoting the Chinese official scientists telling their own government, "Do not do this. You will be compromising lives of people.

You will be compromising. This is a geologically unsafe reason. " But now they have done it and they refusing to own up. Unfortunately to make it worse they are blaming the people of Nepal for it.

But I want to tell the people of Nepal we all know what the Chinese are like. The Dalai Lama has also spoken up and the Dalai Lama himself has said that I have been warning for a very long time against these environmentally destructive activities under the pretext of development. But you see the Chinese will not listen. Did the Chinese own up for creating the COVID 19 pandemic?

Never. Will the Chinese own up for this? They won't. But we will have to stand with the people of Nepal because at this moment of crisis, while we are supporting them, we're supporting them with every possible effort.

Our entire armed forces are supporting them. The Chinese are fingerpointing at them. The people of Nepal must never forget this. They will never forget that the country that has caused devastation to the people of Nepal is now adding insult to injury, adding salt to an open wound by pointing a finger at Nepal and saying they did this to themselves.

No, they did not. Beijing did this. We know. We stand with the people across Nepal today.

We request the government of China to own up. Let's debate. The Chinese media is in overdrive to blame Nepal for the flash flood catastrophe. Trying to put the onus of the tragedy on mudslides in Nepal.

But with China placed geographically north of Nepal, the explanation seems contradictory. Then was the disaster a result of largecale Chinese construction activity uphistry. 10 minutesThere is a deliberate attempt to say that this happened on Nepal on on the side of Nepal and did not happen in China. This is a very calculated attempt and there is a reason for that.

In the last few years and decades, many experts, not just Indian experts but global experts have been warning China about its rampant construction in the mountains. The US Geological Survey has confirmed that flood was the result of a glacial collapse not an earthquake. 4 four magnitude earthquake but as for the USGS uh the US geological survey later analyzed this [music] uh this seesmic data and the satellite images and they said that this was not an earthquake uh this uh this signal was linked to a glacier collapse which caused a massive debris flow the disaster started in the mountaneous Nepal Tibetan border with some of the worst damage seen in Nepal's Raswa district just south of the Chinese border. Nepali media outlets pointed out that the deluj struck Chinese territory first hours before barreling down the bote Koshi and Thrishuli river corridors into Nepal with Chinese media pushing out halfbaked theories about a mudslide in Nepal.

What are they trying to hide? Firstly, I'd like to say that we are the people of India, the people of Bharat are completely with the people of Nepal. I would also like to say that it is very wrong for Chinese media outlets, for Chinese state-owned media to at this stage be so unfair and so cruel to the people of Nepal so as to point a finger at the people of Nepal and effectively say that you called this upon yourself. They did not, sir.

This has been done by the Chinese. The Chinese are not owning up and I think that's very bad. Extremely bad. Which is why I request the people in China, the government in China to look at what it has done to stop this in the future and not compromise the lives of people in downstream countries.

There's a lot of anger in Nepal today about the way in which China has been treating the people of Nepal at this sensitive time and the people of Nepal will never forgive or forget what the Chinese have done and are doing at this time. And with that I'd like to open up professor Madav Nalapat who vice chairman of the Manipal research advance group from Thiranapuram Ambassador Deepak Vora from Delhi. Ainar Tangan from Beijing, Andrew Kaung from Hong Kong. So we have a Chinese perspective, Indian perspective.

We'll take this forward. U now you [clears throat] see Mr. Tangen, I want to start with you and let's be very factual here on this. China's own state supervised geologists have been consistently warning in a study under the China Geological Survey which is a Chinese government sponsored study they've been saying don't do this something bad is going to happen they've been saying that you are making a mistake your mega projects in Tibet whatever your strategic intention they will lead to a catastrophe and they've said that these are very loose structures, very weak cohesion, there's fault activity, earthquakes, uh the slope collapses, it is extremely easily triggered is the exact phrase.

Professor Nalabad, please note the Chinese government geologists have been saying don't do this because there's quick triggering and the government scientific apparatus in China said do not do this. The ground cannot take what you are building. The ground cannot take what you're building. I'm not quoting a American study or an Indian study.

This is a Chinese geological survey study. If you had only paid heed Mr. Tangen to this, so many people would not have died in Nepal. Right?

And I hope that you now will respond to this with the seriousness this deserves. when Oh, yes. It would have been nice if you had been willing to send whatever it is the report that you uh are holding in your hand to uh the panel before you tried this assassination attempt. I doubt that the report says that.

I haven't seen it. I'd like to believe that you're somewhat truthful. But given the fact that you've just recited the largest amount of nonsense that I've heard in a long time in an effort to disposition India to better uh blame China for a disaster in which hundreds of people have probably perished is despicable. This is a situation where we should be coming together.

We don't know all the facts. We have seen the pictures. We've seen, you know, torrents of mud sliding over towns, obviously killing people and you're trying to make political points here. It's very, very, very sad.

No, I think there are always risks to doing this, but Gong Port, remember, has been there since the beginning of the Silk Road. It's not something that China built. It was there last year. 7 billion dollar worth of trade going through it.

Most of that trade is 30% of the trade going into Nepal. So this this idea that the Chinese want to sabotage uh an area where they put billions billions of dollars into for what purpose? To to punish the Nepales. You know you you the only thing you lack is a motive.

You say that this was something that was planned out and it was irresponsible. You show these pieces of paper that we can't even see. If you were in a court of law, I would be ripping you to shreds. But instead, you want to be judge, jury, and executioner.

It's your show. That's your responsibility. But I'm surprised that you would take this opportunity of something. I would I would, Mr.

Jangen, I only only say this to you. I would only I would only like to respond to you by saying that it is despicable and it is unfortunate today that in your first response you are thinking only of money. We are thinking about lives of people and you are saying we have invested two billion about lives. You're the one who's trying to make this about money.

You're trying to recover from the fact that you've done something that is unspeakable. This is about humanity. I would strongly protest against your against the way in which you're putting it because I'm trying very hard to make you see some reason but but allow me to complete but you didn't I'm I'm trying very hard I'm trying very hard to explain to you and I' I'd go across to my senior colleagues here on the panel from the Indian side this is not an India China issue we have nothing to gain all we are saying today to you is to look at the human side of what you're doing and what you are saying to me is do You see, we made $2 billion of trade. You may make $2 trillion of trade.

They are not going to get the lives back. And the Chinese state media is briefing that the mudlight mudslide struck the Nepali side as though the catastrophe began on Nepali soil. It is not true. The order of the damage settles it.

Tibet's own border town was buried before Nepal saw a drop which means that the water came from China not below it gravity carried it south down the one channel that runs Tibet's rivers into Nepal the entire world is telling you today please understand Girong port in Tibet was hit first and then the surge crossed into Rasuai Nepal which lies immediately south of the Chinese border. Please do not be in denial. Please understand the critical geographical fact is simple. Water moves downstream, not upstream.

It would have been nice if you had provided what you intended to use beforehand. Is there any reason given that I was contacted two hours ago that you couldn't have sent these reports so that I could look at them if they were Mr. Tangen? Mr.

Tangen, I'm trying to achieve common ground. advice. I'm trying to achieve common ground whereas for politics why I am trying you have I'm trying to achieve common ground on humanitarian issues whereas you are trying to make it an India India China thing itself because it somehow wanted to punish Nepal for what I I'm not saying you wanted to punish Nepal you are using exaggeration professor Nalapart will bring you on track professor Nalapart I'm not saying that the Chinese plan to punish Nepal. But what I'm saying is that the Chinese were warned by their own geologists.

Don't do this. But maybe a mix of greed and shortsightedness made you make this mistake. You must not you must still stop it. Why don't you why didn't you provide this proof to us the panel so that we could have agreed that you could have said that was wrong.

One thing that is absolutely clear is the fact that the highest level of the Chinese Communist Party a standing committee is dominated by engineers. The problem with engineers of that particular age that they believe they can defeat nature whereas none the the Tibetan culture is that you cannot defeat nature. You have to live with nature. You cannot defeat nature.

I I love that Tibetan Tibetan way of life. We must we must keep to that Tibetan way of life. You will find construction projects everywhere. Tibet is actually an ice plateau.

It is perafrost. And whether it's Chinese roads or Chinese railway, it's all built on that perafrost. And the Chinese have been warned for 21 minutesdecades, decades. You can go back and including by Chinese geologists that this kind of hectic activity on a perafrost on a very precious natural resource of the whole world the Tibetan plateau is going to create disasters of the kind that we are seeing.

So this is the unfortunate situation that glacier part of it melting down it has melted down because one global warming there's no question but two the problem is that the dams that the engineers built not built for global warming. They were not built for the kind of flush huge rainfall that we saw in China if I may say so during that period. They were built for a period where the standards are much lower and probably to save costs or whatever. But as a consequence what's happening is you're saying I mean Ara hundreds possibly thousands have lost their lives and my my only request to Chinese friendsual please you know have some concern for nature for mother nature because mother nature is very kind when you're kind to it it's mother nature is unforgivable when you do unforgivable things in the belief that you can master nature and overpower nature which unfortunately Many engineers of a certain age are prone to believe.

So this kind of dam building activity is really having constantly constantly a Chinese problem and and and I feel somewhere I feel somewhere professor Nalapart that it stems from a Chinese sense of insecurity uh that they feel that now you know the best of times are behind them challenging times are coming up the economic growth is slowing down and they need to exert their influence and do things even if they mess with uh with ecology. You are asking for proof in I want to show you this professor Deepak Bora. I'll send this to you right after this Bishambaral. This is not uh Republic TV.

This is the South China Morning Post. South China Morning Post article and it comes out uh just a couple of weeks back and it says this this vast road that you're trying to build in remote regions in Tibet has huge ecological risks and it warns about how your own scientists and everybody is coming together and telling you don't do it. You are pretending today like I think Andrew also will that you didn't know this would happen. You knew it would happen.

Look you You you bring up COVID 19. Your effort is to vilify China. I understand. I am not saying I am saying that there was a glacial collapse.

There was a glacial I know I have outsmarted you with facts today. You haven't provided any reason why China wants to destroy Nepal. Why it wants to kill its own people? Why it wants to invest billions of dollars and in trade routes?

Again, you're bringing up money. I don't care how much how many billions of dollars you've invested. you know if the Yes. Well, in in Tibet before China uh became officially part of China, it the life expectancy was 42 years.

It is now doubled. And you're telling me that that's all China? I'm not telling you. I'm just saying that you could have been decent and said sorry.

You keep talking about this as if somehow China is building these roads. Why? To get at at India. India is also building dams and roads along this precarious area.

How do you explain that or is that a just too inconvenient? You know this this I would like to get Bishamb on this. See I I I really hope that you stop looking at everything from a China India lens. Please look at it from a humanitarian lens.

I'm looking at a humanitarian lens and I'm I'm disgusted that you would use this. Let me correct him. I I'll correct you. I'll correct you gentlemen.

Listen, when you disturb the Himalayas's ecological system at 5,000 meter, right? There is a difference. Have you people ever studied our dams? They're all downstream.

The highest derry dam is also just about 800. 800 you must understand. They're all downstream. Look at it how we have built gone about it since very early.

If you look at from Chennab, keep listening to me please. Satlo we keep going down to the Ganges to wherever we have built dams we have kept the ecological system of Himalayas intact we have had adverse government people who have taken adverse view of disturbing the system and we have suffered we did not because we didn't want to disturb you must understand China has created complete durus of imal ecology you must understand that you have created an environment where a cascading effect has taken place it It has led to it has led to in this environment in this area. It has led to glacial lakes. It has it has led it has led to last time also in 2000 in 2025 also we had a similar incident.

Unfortunately everybody got saved. There was not such a devastating effect that time. So you must understand that China has not bothered or not paid heed to anybody to any scientific research, ecological research, any geological research on the subject. They just have carried on with it just to prove that they and and the Tibetan plateau was not to be disturbed.

India never disturbed it. India did not disturb its high altitude areas. If you go to if you go to our high altitudes, if you go to if you go to today also if you go beyond beyond Uttar Kashi, we are so careful about everything. So it is don't try and pass the buck.

It is simply that don't don't make it political. There's nothing political. It is human. It is tra tragedy of Himalas.

We are all stakeholders in Himalas and and and and you have been constantly your government has been constantly doing it under the wheel of communism unfortunately and you people are and you people will also suffer. Don't say today the today only the Nepalese have suffered India Indians have suffered you will also suffer under the wheel of communism. You have cut the entire system eologically. You've destroyed the entire ecological system.

And and today today they just come here [clears throat] today. Today the problem is that AAR comes here saying I don't owe you an explanation. It is the very same attitude Deepak which I saw in the Chinese after 19. We don't owe you an explanation.

You have to sit through and I'm going to interrogate you. In I'm going to interrogate you. I'm going to question you. I'm going to question.

Let me interrogate your question. Let me question you. I'm not provided a motive. You want to convict China?

No, I'm not convicting China. I'm just saying that you do owe an explanation. 28 minutesYou just said you need you saying to you that you owe an explanation because you say you didn't provide it to us. Okay.

So, here's a question. You don't need to get worked up. I'm asking you today. I'm not worked up.

I'm I'm I'm I'm sad. I I you're evidently worked up because I'm being very direct. This is the new low because I I'm being very direct with you. You see, I don't know which school you went to in the I don't know which school you went to, but you know Pascal's law, water finds its own level.

Water cannot climb a mountain. And Tibet sits above Nepal in case you've forgotten. I I you know I thought we were going to talk about the they asked me to say well what is the show about and they said Nepal the tragedies here this I was prepared to talk about the human toll about the human toll is because of China's actions about the fact that there the human toll is because of China's primary rescuers coming from China there are thousands of tons of aid that are flowing in the second most important person in China the premier has actually visited the area and is urging that all things be done and necessary to try to save people does not sound like an uncaring that is that is just you know I don't think Nepal needs the Chinese premier's advice right now what I'm saying to you is there was no separate earthquake which was driving the flood the mountain collapsed and I want to know from you why did the mountain collapse I don't think mountains collapse without a reason do they you're obviously a geologist and so So is my good friend, Professor Nalapont and everyone else. I'm not I wasn't prepared.

If you are if you are if I destroy Nepal if my facts are said that if I'm just saying this to you then you listen have an open mind. I'm saying the physical chain was a ice rock avalanching. There was a ice rock avalanche there was a blockade of the lend cola. There was water building up behind the natural dam and its sudden release downstream.

It happened in China. I'm asking you to tell me what did you do? You can just I don't know why you keep saying this. You keep telling me I haven't seen a map.

I don't understand exactly what you're talking about and you're asking me to admit something that you've provided no proof for. That's a fact. For the river runs downstream. What proof do I need to give you for that?

in South. Yes. Okay. So, if it came from the uh from the Chinese started in your in what you claim is your territory that because it came from one side or another side, that's evidence.

Oh my god. That there was some mal what what are you trying to say? Inad I am trying to say to you I'm trying to say to you if I may and I'll get Deepak Voray because I'm at the end of my tether on this. I'm really trying to make you understand that water does not climb the mountain.

Tibet sits above Nepal. The Tibetan plateau is far higher than the Nepal valley. So when the debris is breached, millions of cubic meters of water, ice and mud are pulled downhill and it has all happened in China. You need to tell the people of the world what you were doing in that area that caused this.

You need you need to me the reports before you ask me to speak on something so I know what you're going to talk about. It would be easier. Am I wrong in saying that China into the Himalayas? Say, "Hey, listen.

Why why why didn't you just say to me says we believe that China has wrongly accused Nepal of being at fault when in fact here's the geological reports. the water. That's exactly what I've done before you could. That's exactly what I've done before you can't.

Well, I think it's very wrong of you to blame Nepal at this time. A chance to prepare. Why? Why didn't you get over from chance to prepare?

Is this an ambush? Was this the point? I'm not ambushing you on anything. I'm just saying to you that I hope that you would be considerate to this narration of facts tonight.

But I think that you're being extremely arrogant and very I may say very heartless in your responsive. I want Deepak Bora. I'm a bit takenback by the heartlessness of Tangan tonight. Would you like to respond to me?

Explain to why am I raising heartless? Thank you. Yes sir. Well, thank you very much, sir.

A privilege as always to be with you. I'm in Mumbai right now, sir. And we were talking about exactly what is happening in Tibet. We were the first country to provide a relief and support as we did in the 2015 earthquake.

Sir, I'd like to request our Chinese colleague to be temperate in his language, not aggressive. You are dealing with the one of the world's finest uh TV networks and with one of the world's finest anchors. Now, on the Tibetan plateau, I'd like you to know, sir, temperatures are warming three times faster than the global average, and scientists say that there will be an increase of 5% by the end of the century. Sir, the World Bank has certain figures for per capita availability globally of water.

China has one quarter of that. You are desperate for water. So, we all know that you the dams you are building, the stuff that you are doing messing around with nature and as my colleague just told you that's not going to help. Sir, we are seeing increasing desertification, melting glaciers, other climate related impacts, melting perforce, landslides, avalanches, loss of natural habitats.

Sir, Himalayan snow caps are in meltdown mode due to climate change and massive burning of coal by you, sir, by China. You don't care about anybody else. Tibet holds vast freshwater resources and as the as they melt runoff increases. Sir, you want all the water from Tibet to come to you.

You were attempting to divert that to China to serve your own interests as far as Nepal is concerned. Sir, forgive me. You couldn't care less. Saying that I've sent so many million dollars and so many people have gone there and my prime minister said this.

I don't expect him to say, "Oh, let the Tibetans go where they want. " Sir, that does that's not how international relations works. Let me just tell you, sir, that what you have done and what you are continuing to do, sir, you are hacking your own feet, it's going to come back and haunt you because stealing somebody else's water, making other countries vulnerable. It's only because you want excess water, it's not going to help in the long run.

Sir, let me assure you sir, Nepal is not going to react easily to this. They are not going to react positively. Please monitor the social media in Nepal. They are blaming you squarely.

Which is why your state media now wants to put the onus on Nepal. Sir, I rest my case simply by saying you are messing with the Himalayas, sir. You are going to regret it sooner rather than later, sir. Uh Andrew Lung U may I add with a question to you please?

See you don't have to take this I have to support the Chinese Communist Party come what may kind of situation. You say that you don't know what happened that nature caused this in that case. Andrew how is it? Andrew can you hear me?

Andrew KP from Hong Kong. Yes. Thank you Mr. Andrew, China says and got angry with me when I gave a few facts that he did not like.

But then your follow-up answer is we don't know what's happened. We don't know why it happened. Why are you blaming us, etc. You know what happened.

Otherwise, how is it that now you're saying there's going to be another flash flood soon? You're just now saying, "Oh, something else has gone wrong, too. There's another lake which is where we've done something wrong where water has piled up. It's going to break soon.

There will be another flash flood. Have you noticed this bishamal? Now they are saying, "Oh, we made one more mistake. The mistake is even more serious.

There's going to be another flash flood. " Which means they could have won the first time. They disregarded it because they knew that since their over construction was all beginning to show up out there. My simple question, Andrew, is if you truly did not know what was about to happen two days back, how did you know now that another case is going to happen 2 days from now?

Which means you know which means you your Chinese government has issued a warning that there's going to be another flash flood by the way. How do you know this time? Am I allowed to speak now? Yes, please.

I think that um uh all the discussion ignores the fact uh that of course a lot of people have high regard of Chinese 37 minutesengineers. I mean they've constructed a lot of the world's momentous um um uh projects. Um and also there is only a slight reference to the reality that is a gracial collapse. I mean a gracial collapse is not humanmade.

The graial collapse is because the world's grace gracias are being threatened by the impact of climate change and of course the gracial collapse in a flat area is very different from a glacial collapse high up in the mountains. So um and also there is a reference. So you knew that this place one minute. So you knew that this area Andrew if I may ask you a question.

Can I finish? Can I finish a small point on this reference to a seismic activity a kind of small earthquake u before this catastrophe happened. So the combination of factors and of course the people living downstream are subject to all sorts of threats and that's the world over the world the situation is is applies the world over I think this is a carrying call not just to one nation not just to napel not just to countries in the region but to the whole world because the whole world is affected I think stability to graia which is No no no no I take issue in your headline that China is blaming Nepal. No, I mean I I want to ask you I I want to ask you a simple point here.

Just just one minute. One minute bish. One minute. One minute.

Um I'm happy to share with you that your official state television network CGTN has finally admitted that this whole problem has originated in China. Aerial footage from the disaster zone after a mudslide in southwest China's X Jang Autonomous Region shows a barrier lake had formed under the Girong port. This is man-made in okay the barrier lake on the verge of bursting. Now as um Mr.

Andrew Lung has admitted he has admitted that we knew that there is going to be a potential glacial collapse which means if you're making a settlement at a glacial altitude you know you are damaging the high mountain ecosystem and you are creating a situation where avalanches will be triggered and each year there will be a flash flood like this and people from Nepal will die each year. And all you are saying to me today, oh we've invested $2 billion. Now see, Girong port, Girong port, one minute, Girong port is built by China on the river confluence. That placement increases the velocity of the river towards Nepali territory.

So you knew that this is a purposeful ecological disaster and a cruel one because you knew this. You say that you have engineers your engineers have warned you of this. Your engineers have warned you of this. Anar Raj I mean you knew who killed Gandhi.

I mean what what what are you talking about? Who killed Gandhi? I'm asking you. I'm I'm trying to find what happened in Nepal.

What you are saying is ridiculous. You keep trying to twist ridiculous something where things now you've heard you've you've just said that CGTN says that it originated on the Chinese side. They said that it was caused by that's all I know that it was caused by a collapse of a glacier whether it was on the Nepali side or the side cruel to the people of Tibet and Nepal. This is what we're talking about.

All you want to talk about is who's to blame as if China because you are to blame. You are to blame for Are you not to blame for own? Why? Why would you say something like this?

Why would I say? Because I've given you the timeline of this transboundary flash flood disaster. I've told you everything from the core incident to the chronological progression. I've told you about the catchment areas.

I've told you about the geological warnings. And yet you refuse to look at any of these. You just keep saying ridiculous, ridiculous, ridiculous. As if that means anything.

You can't keep saying ridiculous. We're throwing evidence at you. You're unprepared. You're unprepared.

You wanted to talk about before the show. Yeah. Then you are saying I'm unprepared. I accept that, but don't deny it.

Why wouldn't you Why wouldn't you tell me before the show that you wanted to talk about? You are saying that I've ambushed you. Now, now assume I've ambushed you. Assume assume I've ambushed you.

That doesn't change the facts. The fact is that there's a natural disaster that happened that there's climate change. Not a natural disaster. This is not climate change.

And as as my Indian co Okay, I want to get in Raman Raman Karna who is from Kathmandu. Raman, how how's happening in what's happening in Kathmandu? He's secretary of the Supreme Court Bar Association. Hi Raman.

What's happening? Hello. What's happening then? You know both sides people are talking about where this originated from, right?

How did it happen? Actually it's it's a very major and still evolving disaster situation after the August 26 protected to security but the question but the question still remains whether this natural disaster was unavailable or there is something unnatural in this natural disaster that is the question. Was there any information that could have provided an earlier warning? who knew that what when did they knew it and what action was taken but I think so that is the question that needs to be answered instead of saying that China is investing so many billions dollar in Nepal it's not the question of dollars that is the point Raman I'm trying to tell noar is saying the Chinese are saying we have invested money in Nepal why would they want to exactly the question tell me why would they want to destroy it as a lawyer I can say that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

Similarly, the things that if human casualties at anywhere is the is the concern it should be the concerns of the whole world. So people are so I I I can't believe that we have so many intelligent people talking about and at this moment it's at this moment at this moment we should we should investigate and we should try to know how howible is it is it the cause of negligence or recklessness that has to be answered in instead of saying that it's a China is spending billions dollar in Nepal. I agree with you. I agree with you.

If there is somebody is at fault, they need to be held accountable. But it's not going to be on this show. It's not going to be premature. It's not going to be mob justice.

This is something that has to be considered through science, through the evidence and facts. Well, you know, Anar, I think our friend Raman said it absolutely clearly. Having done what you have done to say that we have invested money in Nepal, we are making money through these ports and uh we are we are expanding our trade is very insensitive, very heartless. I really believe that you should reconsider your position.

I want to tell you I didn't want to ambush you. I just wanted to talk to you. But you unfortunately treated this like an ambush. You were very hostile to me tonight throughout the entire program and that element of hostility is not required when I was only trying to find common ground with you.

Oh gosh, you really are trying to get me to sign off, aren't you? I don't know. It's It's very sad. Don't look at everything through an India China lens.

It is very sad. No, it's it's it's very sad. You know, think about the people of Nepal. Trying to twist my words when I said why would China try to destroy something.

I I think you must ask yourself maybe it is greed, maybe it's insecurity. Greed and geopolitical insecurity. Am I economic greed and geopolitical insecurity are my two reasons why this has happened? I can elaborate on that much more when we meet.

We get a chance to meet. I I I thank you. I I know you're upset, but I'm just doing my job right now.

Nepal Hit by Second Deadly Flood — River Still Blocked After M5.2 Glacier Collapse
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Aug 27, 2026 #Nepal #GlacierCollapse #Earthquake

Update: Nepal Hit by Second Deadly Flood — River Still Blocked After M5.2 Glacier Collapse

A magnitude 5.2 seismic event just rocked the Nepal-Tibet border — but USGS now confirms it wasn't an earthquake at all. New satellite data reveals a massive glacier collapse triggered the signal, unleashing a catastrophic flash flood that has left over 165 dead and 1,300+ missing, including 300+ foreign tourists. With no rainfall and no visible lake behind the blockage, scientists are racing to explain where the floodwater actually came from. In this video, we break down the USGS seismic reanalysis, the glacier collapse theory, the mysterious missing lake, and what could happen next as reports suggest more water may still be trapped upstream.



4.2. That's the number that just got attached to a mountain on the Nepal Tibet border. And for the first two days, everyone, including seismologists, treated it like an ordinary earthquake. It wasn't one.

USGS went back through the seismic data and found no tectonic rupture underneath that region at all. What their instruments actually picked up was something stranger. 2. And that's not even the strangest part.

More than 1,300 people are still missing. Over 165 are confirmed dead. And downstream, a river that has no business moving like this rose 9 m close to 30 ft, roughly the height of a three-story building in about half an hour. There was no storm that day, no monsoon rain anywhere near the source.

Just a clear sky, a sudden collapse high in the mountains, and then a wall of water and debris that buried buildings up to their rooftops. Here's the detail scientists still can't explain. Satellite images from before the disaster show no lake sitting in that valley. None.

So when a flood this size shows up with nothing behind it to release, there's exactly one question left standing. Where did all that water actually come from? By the end of this, you'll know what really collapsed. Why the earthquake was never an earthquake?

And what happened to the lake that should have been there and wasn't? Because this isn't just a landslide story, and it isn't just a flood story. It's the story of a mountain that failed in a way researchers are still trying to reconstruct using satellite passes taken before anyone even knew there was a disaster to look for. What actually happened?

About 20 km from the Nepal China border crossing, high in Himalayan terrain feeding into the Lende Cola River system, a massive section of glacier let go. Professor Rana Bahadur Kayasta, who heads the environmental science department at Catmandu University, describes it as a huge ice avalanche breaking free from a glacier in the wider Lang Tang region. Satellite analysis puts the failed section at around 5,000 900 meters, about 17,000 ft, roughly the cruising altitude where small planes fly, and it dropped more than 1 to 200 m, nearly 4,000 ft, almost straight down into the valley below. Picture that for a second.

That's not a landslide creeping down a hillside. That's a mass of ice and rock in near freef fall for most of a kilometer, hitting the valley floor with enough energy to pulverize solid rock on impact and throw debris outward, which is exactly why the cell phone footage from the area looks like something out of a disaster film. People are running, some are filming instead, which is its own kind of unsettling to watch. Once that mass hit the valley floor, it didn't behave the way a similar event did earlier this year in Blaten, Switzerland, where the debris landed and simply stopped.

Here it fragmented, tore up loose sediment as it moved. And this is the critical part, entered the river system directly. That's where a simple glacier collapse story stops being simple. Because a glacier collapse on its own doesn't explain a flood wave big enough to raise a river 9 m in half an hour.

Why the sequence keeps getting rewritten. Two days ago, the working theory was straightforward. 4 earthquake near the border triggered a collapse. That order made sense on paper.

Earthquakes destabilized slopes all the time. But once USGS reanalyzed the long period seismic waves against fresh satellite imagery, that explanation collapsed along with everything else. The signal wasn't coming from underground. It was coming from the impact of the collapse itself.

So the sequence flips entirely. It wasn't earthquake then collapse. 2. That reversal changes the whole question scientists are chasing.

It's no longer what triggered the earthquake. It's what made a glacier and a mountain slope fail together on a clear, sunny day with nothing resembling rainfall anywhere nearby. Nobody downstream saw this coming because there was nothing to watch for. No storm building, no warning system tuned for this.

The danger started miles away, high in terrain most people in the valley couldn't even see from where they stood. And by the time the river showed any sign of what had happened above it, the flood wave was already on its way down to meet them. If you want the full picture on this as it develops, including where the water mystery goes next, this channel is tracking it closely as new information comes in. But the missing lake isn't the only thing that doesn't add up.

What satellite images revealed after the collapse raises a bigger problem than the one it was supposed to answer. 2. 9 m in . That's how fast the Bode Koshi and the connected river system rose once the debris finally gave way.

For comparison, a genuinely dangerous flash flood might climb a meter or two in that same window. 9 m is a wall moving through a valley. And that wall didn't come out of nowhere. This exact river has done something like this before.

14 months ago, the same general drainage flooded catastrophically after a glacial lake event further upstream. It's possible that history is part of why the death toll here isn't even higher than it already is. People in these valleys have heard this river make this kind of sound before, and some of them ran the moment they heard it rumbling without waiting to see the water arrive. But last year's flood and this one are not the same animal, and that distinction matters.

Last year fit a pattern researchers know well. A glacial lake fills slowly. Pressure builds for weeks. The lake eventually bursts.

Slow buildup, sudden release. But a lake you could point to on a map the entire time. This time, there's no lake to point to. The evidence points somewhere else.

A massive physical collapse of ice and rocks starting high above the valley with the flood almost an afterthought to the collapse that caused it. That's the detail that changed how scientists are reading the entire event. The debris dam theory and its problem. The leading explanation right now runs like this.

When that avalanche of ice and rock slammed into the river valley, it didn't just pass through. It temporarily blocked the river outright. Water kept arriving from upstream with nowhere left to go. So, it began pooling behind the new wall of debris.

From there, one of two things happens. The water eventually tops the blockage, or the blockage fails all at once. Nepalese hydraologists investigating the event believe it was the second scenario. A temporary natural dam that formed and failed inside the same short window, releasing everything it had been holding back in a single surge.

Satellite data obtained through Chinese authorities reportedly did show a blockage roughly 20 kilometers upstream of where the flood eventually reached populated areas, consistent with a debris dam having existed at some point, however briefly. Here's where it gets genuinely strange. When Professor Kayasta's team examined Planet Lab satellite imagery, they could clearly see the aftermath of the massive ice and rock avalanche. What they could not clearly see was a large lake or an obvious standing blockage behind it.

the exact thing you'd expect to find if a dam of that size had built up enough water to raise a river 9 m. So, the mystery from before hasn't gone anywhere. If a lake big enough to do this existed, it apparently lasted just long enough to fail before satellites caught it in the act, which means researchers may be trying to reconstruct something that only existed for minutes, not days. What made this flood different from just water?

There's another reason the destruction downstream looks the way it does, and it isn't only about volume. People describing the surge say it wasn't clean flood water. It was carrying rock, sediment, mud, chunks of ice, and uprooted trees all moving together. That mixture changes the physics of what hits a village.

Plain water flows through and around structures. A surge loaded with solid material hits more like wet concrete in motion, consistent with reports of vehicles disappearing beneath the debris and lower floors of buildings buried entirely, in some cases up to the second or third story. The valley geography made it worse. In steep, narrow Himalayan terrain, flood water has nowhere to spread sideways.

So energy that would normally scatter across an open flood plane stays concentrated instead, funneled directly toward whatever is built, exactly where the valley narrows. If you've ever been near fastmoving water, a flash flood, a storm surge, anything where the speed caught you completely off guard, drop where you were in the comments. I read everyone and it's a useful reminder of how differently people experience the same kind of event because the explanation still isn't finished. Scientists still have to answer why a glacier and a mountain slope failed together on a clear day with no storm anywhere near 8 minutesit.

And what they're finding points somewhere that raises its own uncomfortable questions. 7 m. That's roughly 23 feet of water that according to a report Professor Kayasta received from contacts on the Chinese side of the border may still be sitting behind an upstream blockage right now. Not a live instrument reading.

A secondhand account already hours old by the time it reached him, but if it's accurate, it means this event might not be over. That single detail is why authorities haven't relaxed. When something on this scale happens, a valley doesn't just reset once the first flood wave passes through. Loose rock is still sitting up there.

Pieces of ice can still break off. And other channels nobody can currently see could already be blocking themselves the same way this one did. Quietly with no signal until they fail. So if there was never a proper lake to point to, where did the original water come from?

Professor Kaasta's working answer involves something most people have never thought about. Casses. Glaciers aren't solid ice all the way through. They're riddled with deep fractures, and melt water can flow into those cracks, travel through the glaciers interior, and pool in hidden pockets far beneath the visible surface.

Think of it less like a lake sitting in a bowl and more like water trapped inside a sponge, invisible from above until the sponge itself breaks apart. If a large section of that fractured glacier suddenly fails, everything stored inside it releases together all at once. Water, ice, rock, sediment. That would finally explain a flood with no lake behind it because the lake was never sitting above the ice.

It was hidden inside it. But that may still only be part of the story. What's clear is that this collapse happened without a trigger that fits the usual pattern. No rain, no obvious cause.

So, what actually failed the slope? Landslides in this region typically follow monsoon rainfall. Heavy sustained rain that saturates a slope until it finally gives way. That didn't happen here.

It was a sunny day. No storm system moved through the source area in the hours or days before the collapse. Which leaves a harder question standing. If it wasn't rain, what made a stable mountain slope and the glacier sitting on top of it fail at the same moment?

The leading possibility under investigation is heat, not water. Sustained high temperatures in the region can increase glacial melt. And that melt water doesn't just run off. Some of it works its way into those same creasses, lubricating the base of the glacier from underneath, almost like grease working its way under a heavy object resting on ice.

At the same time, warming can destabilize the frozen rock surrounding high altitude glaciers. Rock that's normally held together by ice acting like natural cement. Loosen that cement and both the ice and the rock around it become candidates to fail together. Here's the part that doesn't add up cleanly, though.

Scientists have not demonstrated a precise trigger for this specific collapse. It would be premature and inaccurate to say climate change caused this exact event on this exact day. What can be said with far more confidence is the broader pattern. The Himalayas are warming faster than the global average.

Glaciers across the range are thinning and retreating. And researchers have been increasingly concerned about exactly this kind of cascading hazard. Ice, rock, and water failing together for years now. This river system already gave one warning.

14 months ago, the same drainage flooded after a glacial lake event. Now, a second extreme event has come down essentially the same valley. But this time, the mechanism wasn't a slowly filling lake bursting open. It was a sudden massive collapse high above the river that generated its own seismic signal on the way down.

And that raises the one question nobody has fully answered yet. If this wasn't a lake bursting and it wasn't rainfall, and scientists still can't name the exact glacier involved, how many other slopes across this same warming range are sitting in that same fractured, unstable state right now, waiting for their own version of this to happen without warning. Let's separate what's actually confirmed from what's still an open question. Because this story has shifted twice already, and honesty matters more than certainty here.

Confirmed. This was not an earthquake that triggered a collapse. USGS reanalysis of long period seismic waves shows the sequence ran the other way. 4 reading.

Confirmed. There was no rainfall event capable of explaining this. It happened on a clear day. Confirmed.

Satellite imagery shows no large surface lake in that valley either before or after the collapse, which is exactly what makes the flood volume so hard to account for. and confirmed. Tragically, over 165 dead, more than 1,300 still missing with search efforts complicated by the fact that more than 300 of those missing are foreign nationals who were in the area as tourists. Still unknown, exactly which glacier failed.

Be skeptical of anyone online naming one with total confidence because the scientists studying this directly haven't done that yet either. Still unknown precisely where the water came from. Though the leading theory involves melt water trapped inside fractures deep in the glacier, released all at once when the ice gave way. Still unknown, whether that report of roughly 7 m of water sitting behind an upstream blockage is still current or already outdated by the time you're watching this.

So here's what to actually watch for going forward. First thing, official confirmation of the source glacier and whether that upstream blockage Professor Kayasta's contacts described is still holding or has already released. That answers whether this is genuinely over or whether a second wave is still possible. Second, whatever comes out of a fuller satellite pass of the creass system in that area.

If researchers can map where melt water was pooling inside the ice before the failure, that tells us whether this was a freak one-time event or a warning sign for other glaciers nearby carrying the same hidden water. right now. And the third one is the big one. Whether any similar slopes across the same warming region show the same fracture patterns.

Because if the mechanism here really is warming ice destabilizing rock from the inside, this valley may not be the only place capable of producing an event like this without a storm, without a lake, and without warning. What we can say with confidence is this. The Himalayas are warming, glaciers are retreating, and researchers have been watching for exactly this kind of cascading failure. ice, rock, and water together for a while now.

What we can't yet say is that this specific event proves that theory. That distinction matters, and it's worth holding on to even as more dramatic footage keeps surfacing over the next few days. Subscribe if you want the follow-up the moment new satellite data or an official Glacier ID comes through. And if this helped make sense of something that's been confusing and fastm moving in the news, a like helps put it in front of someone else trying to understand it,