On Friday night, many travelers thought they had already entered the capital when they reached the Jhaple river, which is only 2.7 km from Nagadhunga check post. After crossing the Jhaple river, Kathmandu begins. Passing the Nagadhunga tunnel and proceeding towards Kathmandu, the fourth bend after crossing the three bends is the Jhaple river.

Despite being close to the valley, due to the incessant rain since Thursday afternoon, small and big landslides and mudslides had already started at dozens of places on the Dhading-Kathmandu road section. The vehicles that had reached the Jhaple River through landslides were unable to proceed further.

Since Friday morning, the heavy rain started, vehicles with passengers were stranded on the road. Hundreds of vehicles were stopped from Jhaple river to Nagadhunga check post. About 23 small-big landslides occurred in a short distance. The largest landslide occurred 30 meters before the mouth of the Jhaple River. Because of this, it was not possible to advance beyond the Jhaple River. Vehicles with passengers were on the road. 

Photo : Prakashchandra Timilsena/Kantipur

As the night wore on due to incessant rains and landslides, the travelers were getting frustrated. However, the passengers had no option to spend the night in the stopped vehicle. Since there is no condition to go out and walk, most of them stay in the car. As the night wore on, there was thunder along with the rain. In the panic, those who tried to sleep in the car woke up and ran away.

Even Shanti Lama of the Lama Nasta Khaja Ghar under the cover of the Jhaple river could not sleep that night. She was in and out of the hotel serving breakfast to the passengers until late at night. He doesn't remember that there has been a landslide in the place where his hotel is located. That's why she was sure. Earlier, the landslide was either slightly higher or lower. After the road was closed, he was unable to trade.

The hotel was like a forest with trees and shrubs growing along with it. That's why there was not so much fear of landslides. Her daughter Ajita was also with her. "Daughter, sister, sister and mummy were with me," says Shanti, "I couldn't sleep because it was raining even though everyone else had fallen asleep." I was afraid that there would be a landslide. It was raining. I could hear the rivers moaning,' she says, 'I was scolding the sleeping people for not sleeping.' Around 1 o'clock, she got up and looked towards Piplamod a little above the hotel. Due to the landslide, the road could not be paved. By that time, three lines of small and big vehicles were parked near the hotel.

According to Shanti, most of the passengers and drivers of the parked cars were sleeping with the windows closed because it was raining. The landslide occurred around 3-4 am on Saturday with a loud noise. Everyone in the hotel got up and ran towards Piplamod. A single landslide swept the entire road. The passengers of the nearby bus started screaming. They ran up Piplamod towards the house, further frightened by a sudden scream in the darkness. He stayed there until it was light. When we came and looked in the morning after the light, the mountain fell down from the top of the forest. "There was a big landslide on the road," she said, "two big buses were crushed by the landslide. There were no people.

(1) Landslide that fell 30 meters before the Jhaple river, due to which traffic was blocked from Friday evening. (2) Another landslide that occurred on the road 100 meters above Jhaple River. The pressure of that landslide caused another landslide to fall into the river. (3) Place where 3 vehicles were buried in a landslide. Photo: Prakashchandra Timilsena/Kantipur

When he reached the hotel after dawn, the police had already arrived. However, he did not find anyone asking whether the vehicles were buried by the landslide or not. "It was the police who took the injured up and sent them in a car," she said.

Due to the landslide, the vehicles have been stopped in the Jhaple river. Just a hundred meters above that is the road. It seems that the mountain itself collapsed while the landslide on the way up was falling towards the river. The passengers of the car stopping near the hotel could not move after the mountain fell down at once. Buses and micros stopped on the side of the road were damaged and passengers were injured. 

According to a passenger in another vehicle about 100 meters below the landslide of Jhaple river, that incident was horrible. In the midst of continuous rain, once a landslide occurred with a loud thunder, and the sound of harguhar was also heard from there. "There was no way to get out of the car and see what happened," he said. Micro roof was seen below the landslide. The police had also arrived. So we went down towards the tunnel to escape from there.' According to him, other passengers along with him went down a bit and left Nagadhunga through Bhir road.

'Today, when I hear it, my heart is filled with excitement. It seems that he has survived," he said. "The landslide happened on Saturday morning. If they had tried to rescue the passengers who were stuck due to the landslide on Friday evening, perhaps such a big incident would not have happened.

Even when they decided to reach Nagadhunga on foot, they had no intention of rescuing the passengers through the tunnel. If it was possible to rescue the passengers from Saturday through the tunnel, then why was the initiative not taken on Friday, he asked. "There was no question of rescuing the passengers from the tunnel until we went up the road to Bhir," he said Armed, Nepal Police and Nepali Army were deployed from Saturday morning. As soon as they got the news of the landslide, a team led by Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Suman Lamichhane of Nilbarahi Gana Kirtipur of the armed forces reached the Jhaple river, bypassing the road from place to place. "When we reached the scene, there was a big landslide. Some vehicles appeared to be less than half buried. It was not known how many vehicles were affected by the landslide,' he says, 'but it was not known that the passengers were affected. The only thing that happened was that the passengers and vehicles that were stopped in the middle should be sent to their destination after the road was restored. As it was raining, there was an immediate problem in removing the landslide.

'When we came from Kathmandu, there was a landslide at a distance of 50-50 meters. He said, "It was a landslide mixed with mud and stones." According to him, since the passengers who were injured due to the landslide had been rescued, nobody thought that there could be vehicles with passengers under the landslide. In the meantime, there was a problem of floods everywhere in the Kathmandu valley, people were trapped and houses were submerged. The team was also concentrated there,'' he said, who was deployed to remove the landslide. After that, we dug with an excavator and later we did the work of searching for the body buried by hand.' 

Four excavators were mobilized in the rescue. Till Saturday evening, 14 and 21 on Sunday, 35 bodies have been found. "During the rescue, trees and stones were found between the bus," he said, "it seems that the vehicle was buried by a landslide from about a hundred meters above." The microbus number LU1J 4578, which left Butwal for Kathmandu, was found buried in the Jhaple River on Saturday evening. Similarly, when the landslide was cleared on Sunday morning, bus No. 4K 2270 traveling from Gorkha to Kathmandu, microbus No. Ba3J 1345 traveling from Chitwan to Kathmandu were also found. Kedar Prasad Paneru, a resident of Piplamod, which is near the landslide, says that there was a big landslide at that place after a long time. A big landslide happened in this place around 058. Nine people from the same Bidari family who came here from Hetaunda and ran a hotel died,'' he says. However, there was another landslide at the same place and caused a lot of damage.

Water and Meteorology Department, Weather Forecast Division had been issuing a bulletin since August 26, predicting that it will rain for three days after the rain started on Thursday. In the special weather bulletin issued by the department, there will be heavy rain in some parts of the country and it was requested to take necessary precautions. Along with this, the Chitwan District Administration Office also banned the plying of passenger vehicles on the Muglin-Narayangadh road section from 7 pm to 5 am on Friday. In case of Kathmandu-Dhading road section, no such notification was issued. However, the administration has requested not to travel unless it is essential. However, from the local administration to businessmen and travelers, it seems that the warning is not taken seriously.