Police, soldiers and volunteers have launched a major search operation in the remote Langtang region of the Nepalese Himalayas to look for up to 600 trekkers and support staff who have been missing since an 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit the south Asian country nine days ago.
The death toll in the disaster has reached 7,365, with 14,355 injured. The bodies of about 100 trekkers and villagers were recovered at the biggest village in Langtang, which lies 60km (40 miles) north of Kathmandu and is on a trekking route popular with westerners.
The entire village, which includes 55 guesthouses used by trekkers, was wiped out by the avalanche, officials said. “Volunteers and police personnel are digging through six-foot snow with shovels looking for more bodies,” Gautam Rimal, assistant chief district officer, said.
Uddab Bhattarai, the most senior administrator in the area, said more than 400 people had been killed in Langtang, with at least 250 missing. “We have been doing search and rescue massively but haven’t been able to figure out the exact number of missing,” he said.
The president of Trekking Agencies’ Association of Nepal, Ramesh Dhamala, said the number of people missing could at least twice as high. “According to the records, 1,350 Nepalese and foreign trekkers entered Langtang, but once the earthquake struck we were unable to find out how many were still there,” he said. “We assume at least 600 foreigners and Nepalese might be missing in the area.”
Langtang, a region of steep gorges and high mountains on the border with Tibet, was hit by massive landslides after the quake. “It seems that entire hillsides sheared away. There were huge avalanches too, a mix of snow and mud,” said a Kathmandu-based trekking operator with long experience of the region.
Tulsi Prasad Gautam, head of the tourism department in Nepal, described the Langtang valley as “completely wiped away”.
In other parts of the Himalayan country, three people were pulled alive from the rubble of their home on Sunday, eight days after the earthquake, while local media reported that a 101-year-old man was found alive on Saturday.
There was continuing confusion over the climbing season on Everest, the world’s highest peak, with conflicting announcements by government officials. Whatever the eventual administrative decision it appears the spring season, which is the most popular with mountaineers, is unlikely to see any attempts on the 29,000ft mountain.
The route that is laid anew each year through the icefall, one of the most dangerous passages though low down the peak, has been largely destroyed and local Sherpa guides who specialise in preparing a path through the jumble of ice blocks and crevasses are reported to have refused to repair it.
The relief operation has been troubled by bureaucratic bottlenecks, logistic difficulties and rough terrain. Aftershocks are also continuing, though bad weather that had grounded helicopters has cleared.
Nine days after the earthquake, Sushil Koirala, the prime minister of Nepal, has made his first visit outside the capital. The 75-year-old politician travelled to Chautara in Sindhupalchowk district, where at least 3,000 people were killed. “We are doing our best in whatever resources we have,” he said, adding that his home had been damaged.
Western aid officials have expressed frustration at infighting within the Nepalese government, which they say is hampering the relief operation.
The chief district officer of Gorkha, Uddhav Timilsina, said 20,000 tarpaulins had been distributed, though more than twice as many were needed. “Landslides in some places have affected our relief distribution and we haven’t been able to reach some of the affected area because of the road conditions,” he said. “We do have scarcity of food.”
A police spokesman, Kamal Singh Bam, said a shortage of tarpaulins was a serious problem.
US military aircraft and personnel arrived in Nepal on Sunday and were due to begin helping ferry relief supplies to stricken areas outside the capital. The US contingent comprised eight aircraft, including one Huey and two C-130s, and 100-120 personnel, spokeswoman Capt Cassandra Gesecki said.
On Sunday, the government restricted the landing of large cargo aircraft at the congested airport to limit damage to the stressed runway. The UN has said 8 million of Nepal’s 28 million people had been affected by the quake, with at least 2 million needing tents, water, food and medicines over the next three months. A survey found that three-quarters of the buildings in Kathmandu had been destroyed or were unsafe.
Thousands of people remain camped out in the city and its surroundings. Many more remote villages are still to be reached, and aid officials fear further fatalities from infected wounds sustained in the quake and among vulnerable sections of the population such as the elderly and the very young.
Monday 4 May 2015
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/04/nepal-earthquake-rescue-teams-search-missing-trekkers-himalayas
