Once a colourful city, now a sea of mud: Inside Nepal's flood-hit town

Rasuwa, Nepal, was once a colourful, bustling town, a place where thousands lived, shops lined the streets and markets stayed busy. Today, almost nothing remains after a catastrophic flash flood almost wiped it clean.

From a vantage point above the devastation, India Today's Ashutosh Mishra describes a landscape transformed beyond recognition in the wake of the catastrophic disaster.

"On one side, the river still flows. But along its banks, the remains of what was once a sprawling market and residential settlement can be seen buried under thick layers of mud and debris. A once-colourful city has been reduced to one colour — the colour of mud," he said.

The destruction stretches as far as the eye can see. What used to be commercial establishments on one side and homes on the other has been swallowed by the torrent.

And the river itself offers little indication of the force with which the water came crashing through.

The flow has now receded, but the debris left behind shows just how high the water rose. The boundary line along the river indicates that the floodwaters may have surged 60 to 70 feet above the current level, leaving a trail of destruction in their wake.

"For residents trying to return to what is left of their homes, even reaching their neighbourhoods has become a challenge. JCB machines are being used to ferry people towards their houses so they can retrieve whatever belongings may have survived the flood," Mishra says.

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As Mishra moved towards another part of the settlement, the scale of the devastation became even clearer.

“There is nothing left in the city. Several buildings have been reduced to fragments, while others are buried in mud. Shops, commercial establishments and residential homes are all gone."

The monster flash floods have left a trail of destruction in Nepal’s Rasuwa, Dhading and Nuwakot districts, as well as parts of Tibet after an avalanche near a Himalayan river triggered catastrophic flooding downstream.

The torrent first hit Timure near Rasuwa, along Nepal’s border with Tibet, before surging downstream.

The floods swallowed entire settlements, damaged roads and bridges and caused extensive destruction to hydropower projects and other infrastructure.

The death toll across Nepal and Tibet has risen to 175, while nearly 1,500 people remain missing.

Nepal Foreign Minister Shishir Khanal said nearly 300 Indians were reportedly among those missing, although around 100 have since been located.

Rescue operations are underway across the affected districts, with India also sending emergency supplies to Nepal.

Across the border, Tibet’s Gyirong town was also severely hit.

According to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV, 558 people remain missing, including 260 foreign nationals, while at least three people were killed.

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