GYIRONG (TIBET-NEPAL BORDER), Sep 6: Dramatic images emerging from the Tibet-Nepal border have revealed the extensive devastation caused by the August 26 flash floods, including footage showing a massive wall of mud, rocks and debris engulfing a border immigration post within seconds.
The video, which circulated widely, captured the sheer force of the disaster that swept through the region and caused widespread destruction on both sides of the border.
While the scale of the devastation had largely been documented from the Nepalese side, China on Sunday allowed PTI and select foreign media access to Gyirong County in Tibet, where the border immigration post was destroyed.
The August 26 disaster was triggered by an ice-rock avalanche near the Nepal-Tibet border, sending a massive surge of water and debris downstream through the Bhotekoshi River and devastating settlements in northern and central Nepal.
More than 1,300 people have been killed in Nepal, while around 5,000 remain missing.
On the Chinese side, officials said 31 people were killed and 531 remain missing in Tibet. The missing include 261 foreigners, among them 49 Indians and 22 nationals of other countries.
Many of the foreign nationals who died or went missing were reportedly near the ill-fated immigration facility when it was overwhelmed by the floodwaters.
China has begun major relief and reconstruction efforts in the affected area, including rebuilding roads to restore access to the cut-off border crossing. Beijing has also sent relief supplies to Nepal.
Chinese and Nepalese authorities have attributed the disaster to the collapse of a high-altitude glacier in Nepal.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said on August 28 that experts and official institutions from both countries had made a preliminary assessment and concluded that the disaster was triggered by the collapse of a high-altitude glacier.
The sudden glacier collapse has raised concerns among scientists over the increasing instability of glaciers across the Tibetan Plateau.
Gao Rong, deputy director of China's National Climate Centre, said the glacier area on the Tibetan Plateau had declined by around 24 per cent over the past six decades, with about 7,000 small glaciers disappearing completely.
He warned that the structural stability of glaciers could decline further, potentially increasing the frequency and severity of glacial disasters and triggering cascading hazards.
Researchers from the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, said the mudslide generated by the glacier collapse travelled around 22 km down the valley and reached Gyirong Port, the Tibet border crossing, in just seven minutes.
Scientists said the disaster demonstrated that risk assessments in high-altitude regions must consider not only the initial glacier collapse but also the cascading effects that can dramatically amplify the destruction.
Satellite and field data showed that the collapsing ice and rocks swept through the valley, scoured the riverbed, carried debris from the banks and mixed with water, transforming the initial high-altitude collapse into a powerful mudslide.
Researchers have called for disaster-risk assessments to incorporate the wider hazards associated with the changing high-mountain cryosphere.
The disaster has also renewed concerns among countries downstream of the Tibetan Plateau, where rapid environmental changes and large-scale infrastructure development could potentially compound the impact of future natural disasters.
