Nine days in pitch blackness. Mud sealing the exits. Air running dangerously thin. When two workers were pulled alive from a hydropower tunnel in Nepal, the entire rescue operation changed overnight.
Catastrophic flash floods tore through northern and central Nepal on August 26, triggered by a massive glacier and rock collapse near the border. The wall of water and debris slammed into multiple mountain infrastructure projects, sealing entrances to deep underground complexes. Authorities estimate that roughly 500 workers remained trapped inside subterranean tunnels across a dozen different hydropower sites.
Then came the breakthrough at the Upper Trishuli 3A facility.
The Breakthrough at Trishuli 3A
Search teams heard faint voices echoing from deep inside the blocked infrastructure. That auditory clue launched a frantic extraction effort 170 meters underground.
Rescuers pulled out Sanjay Shah, a mechanical foreman, and Kabir Maharjan, a project supervisor. Shah had stayed behind in the control room specifically to sound the alarm and save his colleagues. That choice cost him his own escape route as tons of sludge choked the exit.
Surviving over a week underground requires defying extreme odds. Shah later told military officials that he kept calm by reciting mantras in total darkness. Both men were immediately airlifted to Kathmandu. Shah was listed in stable condition, while Maharjan required intensive care.
The Nightmare Logistics of Underground Rescues
Finding survivors nine days after a disaster sounds like a Hollywood script. Executing it in real life required heavy machinery, tactical precision, and sheer grit.
The immediate obstacle was finding the tunnel itself. The flash floods reshaped the topography so drastically that normal landmarks vanished. Rescuers relied on satellite imagery, old topographic maps, and helicopter footage just to figure out where the entrances used to be.
Once they located the structural openings, excavators had to clear massive boulders larger than cars. Engineers even utilized controlled explosions to break through stubborn blockages. It was a terrifyingly thin margin for error. A single miscalculated blast could have collapsed the entire tunnel onto the very people they were trying to save.
Water management posed yet another hazard. Submerged sections required heavy-duty pumps and makeshift drainage trenches dug toward the nearby river.
What Happens to the Rest of the Missing
The survival of Shah and Maharjan shifted the entire focus of Nepal's disaster response. Around 900 workers remain unaccounted for across regional power projects, with about 500 presumed stuck in underground chambers.
Specialized teams from international partner nations, including India, China, and South Korea, joined local military and police personnel. They are crawling through cramped, debris-filled pipelines, listening for any sign of movement or human voice.
The disaster has also reignited harsh questions about climate vulnerability in the Himalayas. Flash floods and glacial lake outburst floods are becoming more frequent and lethal, placing massive infrastructure and the lives of migrant and local workers directly in the crosshairs.
Search operations continue around the clock at sites like the Rasuwagadhi plant, where authorities maintain hope that pockets of trapped workers are still holding out. Every hour counts. Rescuers are racing against time, shifting debris by hand when heavy equipment cannot fit, determined to find more survivors in the dark.
