Survivor returns home after Nepal glacier disaster
TILATHI KOILADI, Nepal — Sanjay Sah, a rare survivor of last month’s devastating glacier collapse in Nepal, has returned to his village after spending nine days trapped in a hydropower tunnel and a week receiving hospital care, reports BritPanorama.
His homecoming, marked by a mix of joy and grief, comes amid the aftermath of the disaster that has claimed at least 1,386 lives and left 5,130 individuals missing across the country.
“I was trapped in the tunnel … I felt trapped in the hospital room too. I finally feel free here in my village,” Sah, 30, shared after arriving in Tilathi Koiladi, near the Indian border.
Sah, a mechanical foreman at the Upper Trishuli 3A Hydropower Station, is one of only three workers rescued from debris-buried tunnels. Around 900 other power station workers remain unaccounted for following the incident, when a glacier collapse triggered a deluge of mud and water, obliterating everything in its way.
During his time underground, Sah survived by drinking floodwater and seepage from the mountain rock until rescuers reached him. He left the hospital in Kathmandu on Friday and boarded a bus for an overnight journey home, where about 60 people were waiting for his arrival.
Family members, including his parents, uncle, wife, and daughter, greeted him with a traditional ceremony that included washing his feet as a cleansing ritual. After receiving a pink vermilion tika on his forehead from his mother, the emotional reunion led to tearful embraces as they celebrated his return.
Witnessing the emotional scene, many women who gathered to welcome Sah wiped their tears with colorful saris. Yet, the atmosphere is overshadowed by uncertainty, as many in Tilathi Koiladi remain anxious about relatives who were working at hydropower stations affected by the flooding.
“There are more people from my village still missing after the flood,” Sah told reporters. He recounted a family reaching out to him during his hospital stay to inquire about a relative working at another power station, to which he had to respond that he had no information.
At home, Sah expressed a desire to move forward after the harrowing ordeal. “I will stay in my village for some time now. I want to meet all my people,” he affirmed. “But if I am called back to duty, I will go.”
