Reporter’s Diary: I Returned to Rasuwa, Where the River Changed Everything

The shoes a reporter bought during an earlier flood survived long enough to carry him back into the same disaster zone 14 months later. What he found there had changed almost beyond recognition.

On July 8, 2025, a flood swept down the Lhende Khola above the Rasuwagadhi border crossing. Eleven people had died and 19 were missing. The Syafrubesi-Timure road had been cut off, communications were disrupted, and the full scale of the damage remained unclear.

Kantipur sent the reporter with photographer Angad Dhakal, Kantipur Television cameraman Suraj Khadka and Dhading-based reporter Poshnath Adhikari. After spending the night in Bidur, they walked 15.5 kilometres from Syafrubesi toward Timure. Mud covered the road, forcing the reporter to abandon his leather shoes and buy another pair.

Near Timure, the team crossed the landslide at Lingling Cliff with help from the Nepali Army, Armed Police Force and Nepal Police. Suspended from ropes, they moved across the unstable slope. Timure, built on a small rise, avoided the worst of the flooding, but the Miteri Bridge, customs yard, roads and some hydropower projects were damaged. The team completed its reporting and returned safely to Kathmandu, unaware that the same river would bring a much more destructive flood.

On August 26, 2026, another flood came down the Lhende Khola. The reporter immediately began preparing to return. He packed extra clothes and wore the same pair of shoes bought during the previous assignment. Angad returned with his camera, while Arjun Paudel of The Kathmandu Post and Kantipur Television colleagues Bikash Acharya and Hem Prasai joined the team.

They left Kathmandu at about 4 p.m. and were delayed for around an hour by floodwaters in a local stream before reaching Bidur at about 8 p.m. Settlements along the Trishuli River had already been swept away. Even higher ground looked unsafe, while hotels in relatively secure locations were full. Power had gone out across Nuwakot, and mobile networks appeared only intermittently as the team searched for a safe base from which to continue reporting.