Nepal Floods: Drone Mission Rescue Workers From Hydropower Tunnels

Nuwakot: The catastrophic glacial and mountain collapse on the China-Nepal border on August 26, 2026, killed at least 1,399 people, with more than 5,500 missing, including around 800 foreigners. Four days after devastating floods in Nepal, drone pilot Adarsha Raj Bhusal found himself sinking waist-deep into mud as he leapt from a helicopter onto a damaged hydropower site.Bhusal, founder of Nepali drone company GarudX, had joined special army forces on a mission to find survivors in the flooded Upper Trishuli-1 hydropower tunnel in Rasuwa district using a custom-built waterproof drone and rescued three from deep inside tunnels -- two Nepalis on Friday and a Chinese man on Saturday that have buoyed hopes that more could still be alive. The two Nepali workers were rescued from Trishuli 3A tunnel while the Chinese national was pulled alive from the Upper Trishuli-1 project. The latter tunnel, Bhusal recalls, series of large platforms where debris carried by the hydropower system accumulates. Flying through the darkness, the drone eventually reached the first platform, where floodwaters had pooled."That's where it got unsettling," said Bhusal. He said, "The water was bubbling. Gas was rising out of it. Based on that, we suspected there were bodies decaying somewhere beneath the surface."The rescuers could go no further. Bhusal says the mission underscores how unmanned aircraft can help rescuers reach places too dangerous for humans.