Rain, Snow Ravage

The continuous rainfall since Wednesday has drenched most parts of the country, while the heavy snowfall in the high Himalayan region has badly affected normal life. This is the second heavy rainfall in less than a month after the devastating downpour of October 4, which killed 39 people in Ilam district alone and caused massive damage to roads and bridges across the country. The latest rainfall triggered by cyclone Montha has again damaged several roads that had just been repaired and brought into operation after the October 4 disaster. 

The Mechi and Koshi highways in Koshi Province and the BP Highway and Prithvi Highway in Bagmati Province have suffered damage, with a complete closure of the Mechi and BP highways for traffic. After a flood swept away the diversion in Simal Golai along the alternative route to Mechi Highway and landslides further damaged the road near the Rajduwali Bridge in Ilam-9, three districts – Ilam, Panchthar, and Taplelung – have virtually been cut off from the national road network. The heavy rainfall of October 4 had isolated these districts from Jhapa by sweeping away bridges and roads, particularly in the Ilam section of the Mechi Highway. 

Similarly, the BP Highway in Kavre – already hit by floods in September last year – has been damaged twice within a month, halting all vehicular movement. The repeated destruction of roads and bridges built along riverbanks should serve as a serious warning for development planners and engineers to adopt more resilient designs.

While the rains caused damage to roads in the hilly regions, heavy snowfall in the mountainous areas has left hundreds of domestic and foreign tourists stranded. The mountains received snowfall at the beginning of the tourism season; as a result, hundreds of tourists who were in the mountains for trekking got stranded, prompting the government to deploy security personnel to rescue them. From the Khumbu region in the east to Annapurna Base Camp and Mustang in the west, several tourists have been stranded due to heavy snowfall. The police rescued 182 tourists from ABC alone the other day. 

After the flight disruptions to Lukla owing to bad weather, about 5,500 tourists are stranded in the Khumbu region. Of them, 600 are said to be waiting for flights at the Tenzing Hillary Airport. While those who were in the high mountainous areas have been stranded, others have cancelled their trips, which has come as a blow to the tourism industry. The early snowfall has occurred just a few days after there were news reports about the shortage of hotel rooms to meet the demands of the inflow of the rising number of local and foreign tourists from Baglung to Beni and Jomsom. But within a few days, the unseasonal snowfall has dealt a blow not only to the hotel business but to the entire tourism industry. 

Moreover, the rainfall caused huge damage to the paddy crops. The rain occurred when the farmers were busy harvesting the paddy. The farmers are greatly worried after rainwater soaked the harvested paddy in the fields, while the rains with wind flattened the standing paddy crops. The rice yield is sure to be poor this year either way. It is a cruel twist of fate that the poor farmers who struggled with drought during the plantation season are now watching heavy rains destroy their long-awaited harvest.