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We are all used to seeing upsetting images, but the distressing footage of the huge mudslides and flood water crushing a border crossing, bridges and hundreds of homes on Wednesday was shocking enough to stop everyone in their tracks. By Friday it was confirmed that around 600 people had been killed and nearly 2,000 remain missing.
As soon as the size of the disaster in Nepal and Tibet became clear, we dispatched south Asia correspondent Hannah Ellis-Petersen to Nepal. Her video report from Friday, edited by Mathilde Poncet, captured the vast scale of the devastation and the human cost, as did this powerful dispatch she wrote with Gaurav Pokharel. Hannah and Gaurav, alongside Sam Jones and Amy Hawkins, also covered the frantic rush to get aid into the region.
We worked quickly to piece together a visual guide to the disaster, weaving together images, video and witness accounts to create a powerful and harrowing account. Video on the front of our site viscerally displayed the scale of the devastation, as did this striking video timeline. On The Latest, Devika Bhat, one of our global editors, who is based in the UK, spoke to Lucy Hough about how the disaster unfolded.
Scientists are still examining the precise mechanics of the Himalayan disaster, but many observe that glaciers and permafrost around the world are being weakened by global heating, caused by the burning of gas, oil and coal. Speaking to Guardian staff from the flood-hit town of Bidur, Hannah described the scenes in Nepal as looking like the “climate crisis in its rawest, barest form”.
Donna Lu looked at initial analyses of the causes and Jonathan Watts unpacked the extent to which the climate crisis was responsible for the icefall that led to the collapse – and the increased risks posed to communities near mountain ranges including the European Alps, Caucasus, Himalayas, Andes and beyond. In a comment piece, Nepali climate scientist Sunil Acharya damningly pointed out that the parts of the world that had contributed least to the climate crisis were suffering most.
The challenges posed in covering disasters like this are numerous – from getting reporters like Hannah safely into position as quickly as possible, to assessing and verifying the accuracy of reports coming from scenes of chaos and devastation. The Chinese government’s strict control on information in Tibet makes the challenge even harder. As the water recedes, we’ll continue to explore the full devastating extent of the impact on local people and the causes.
As our editorial said, “Once the immediate humanitarian crisis in Nepal has eased, and survivors have been helped to safety, the reality [of human activity on the geology of mountains] must be addressed.”
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