Kathmandu/Beijing, Sep 9 (EFE).- Two weeks after a surge of ice, water, and rocks swept through the Himalayas, Nepal is still searching for thousands of missing people, while neighboring Tibet has restored key infrastructure and begun returning evacuees home.
The disaster has left sharply different recovery scenarios on either side of the border, with Nepal still struggling to locate and identify victims while Tibet moves toward recovery.
Thousands missing in Nepal
Nepal has recovered 1,367 bodies and lists 5,133 people as missing, including 587 foreign tourists, compared with 43 deaths and 519 missing people reported by Chinese authorities in Tibet.
Of those missing in Tibet, 261 are foreigners from 23 countries.
More than 21,000 personnel are taking part in rescue and recovery operations in Nepal.
Some searches are focused on hydroelectric power plants where large numbers of workers were trapped, although authorities have yet to establish how many people remain underground.
The most recent survivors were rescued on Sep. 4 and 5, when four people were pulled alive from the facilities.
In Tibet, more than 2,500 rescuers and hundreds of vehicles have been deployed around Gyirong.
Operations were initially hampered by the destruction of the area’s only land route, power, and communications outages, and the risk of a new flood caused by a natural dam upstream.
Glacier collapse identified as likely trigger
Initial analyses indicate that the disaster began with the collapse of a high-altitude glacier in Nepalese territory, an explanation accepted by China and later supported by international satellite analyses.
Chinese experts have placed the fracture at an altitude of between 5,200 and 5,400 meters and described a chain reaction in which falling ice swept up rocks and debris, creating a mudflow that reached Gyirong, Tibet, in about seven minutes.
Chinese specialists have ruled out the possibility that the disaster was caused by the bursting of a glacial lake.
Nepal initially said the cause had not been fully established as investigations into the origin of the avalanche continued.
Recovery, return move at different speeds
In Nepal, the destruction has left communities in Rasuwa and Nuwakot facing severe access problems.
The Red Cross and Red Crescent have warned that some families remain without essential services and estimated that journeys that previously took about three hours can now require nine hours or more.
Nepal began reopening schools in Bidur on Wednesday after a two-week closure.
In Rasuwa, Nuwakot, and Dhading, 23 educational centers have been affected, with more than 7,000 students enrolled. About 600 children remain missing.
In Tibet, the land route to Gyirong was restored a week after the disaster, allowing heavy machinery to enter the area and communications to be progressively restored.
Of the 499 residents evacuated from five villages, 444, almost nine in 10, have already returned home.
Nepal struggles to identify victims
Nepal had returned just 102 of the 1,367 recovered bodies and remains to families by Wednesday, fewer than one in 10.
Police have collected 2,698 DNA samples, 1,286 from human remains and 1,412 from relatives, including samples taken abroad to help identify foreign tourists.
A lack of space in morgues has also forced authorities to temporarily bury unidentified victims.
In Gyirong, China has deployed laboratories and forensic teams to identify recovered bodies through DNA testing and other forensic procedures.
Access to the aftermath
In Nepal, national and international journalists have worked on the ground since the early days of the disaster, gaining access to affected communities, hospitals, morgues, and cemeteries and speaking directly with survivors and relatives.
Authorities have issued frequent updates, although figures have sometimes differed between agencies as lists of dead and missing have been revised.
In Tibet, information about casualties, rescue operations, and damage came primarily from government authorities and state media during the first days after the disaster.
Beijing also suspended the issuance of permits for border areas under special control in Shigatse, including Gyirong, citing the risk of further disasters.
A small group of foreign journalists was allowed into Gyirong on Sep. 5 and 6, 10 days after the flood, on a visit organized by Chinese authorities.
China’s latest official death toll, released Sunday, had not been updated by Wednesday.
Human Rights Watch has accused Beijing of “censorship and control” of information and criticized what it described as the limited presence of victims’ voices in the public account of the disaster. EFE
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