Nothing but ruins: Rescuers reach border office where Sadhguru team was stuck

Four days after a devastating flash flood swept through the Nepal-Tibet border region, Chinese rescuers finally reached the Gyirong immigration centre that was swallowed by a massive wall of water and mud. The rescue team, however, found "nothing but ruins" at the border crossing, where several Indian pilgrims were present - either on their way to Tibet for the Kailash Mansarovar yatra or returning after completing the pilgrimage. An 80-member team of spiritual leader Sadhguru's Isha Foundation was also at the immigration centre when tragedy struck.

Nothing remains of the checkpoint or its surrounding infrastructure, with large parts of the area buried under debris and thick layers of mud. With much of the road to Gyirong destroyed, the 21-member Chinese rescue team, accompanied by a search dog, had to undertake an arduous journey to reach the site. The rescuers crossed mountains and valleys, using ropes to make their way through forests and cliffs before eventually reaching the devastated border complex.

"There was no road. It was all virgin forest and sheer cliffs," a rescue worker, Zou Mingqi, said. "At the complex, as far as the eye could see, there was nothing but ruins," he said.

FLOODS DEVASTATE IMMIGRATION CENTRE

Nepal faced one of its worst disasters since the 2015 earthquakes after a massive flash flood struck districts bordering Tibet on August 25, sweeping away homes, vehicles and bridges. The disaster has left over 600 dead, with around 2,000 still missing as rescuers race against time to find the survivors and those stranded.

Nearly 320 Indians remain missing in Nepal, while the government has managed to establish contact with around 400 citizens on the Chinese side, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Friday.

Some of the most dramatic footage from the floods was captured on CCTV at the Gyirong port region. Visuals showed a sudden rush of water and mud flowing over the multi-storey immigration office, as people in the area attempted to escape.

The Gyirong border port connects Tibet and Nepal. Every traveller bound for Mount Kailash and Lake Mansarovar must clear immigration here. Though there are checkpoints at Khasa and Korala, Gyirong is the most widely used route.

According to a report in the NYT, at least 130 people were near or at the immigration centre when the floods struck. The largest group, of 80 people, was part of Sadhguru's Isha Foundation.

In an emotional video released earlier this week, a tearful Sadhguru said that the group - 46 women and 34 men from 19 countries - had reached the immigration checkpoint minutes before tragedy struck.

"Literally, the entire group was there at the building... This is a terrible and extraordinary event," Sadhguru said, as people could be heard weeping around him.

The spiritual leader, who is in Tibet's Saga, recounted that he led his own tour group through the same immigration checkpoint just days earlier. "The same building where we were for the immigration just a week ago... that entire building is washed away," he said.

SEVERAL INDIANS WERE AT BORDER OFFICE

Another group, which consisted of more than 50 Indian pilgrims, had set off for the border checkpoint before the flooding occurred, NYT reported. Friends and relatives of Syed Umar Farooq, the tour's coordinator, said they had not been able to contact anyone in the group since the disaster.

Another 40 travellers from Himalayan Glacier, a US-based tour company, had also planned to cross into Tibet through the same checkpoint. Sagar Pandey, the company's chief executive, told NYT that he had not heard from anyone in the group since Wednesday.

A 45-year-old software engineer from Karnataka, Rakesh Nayak, working in Australia for the past 10 years, was also among those present at the immigration centre.

"He was inside the office when the floods came. After that, there has been no communication," Nayak's father said.

Deepak and Madhu Ahuja, an Indian-origin couple living in Texas, were on a group pilgrimage to Kailash when tragedy struck. Their daughters believe they were inside the immigration office at Gyirong.

"We all immediately started calling our parents. No answer," one of the sisters told the BBC.

Meanwhile, as Nepal picks up the pieces, the threat of another flash flood looms over following the formation of a new lake near the affected region. Rescue teams have been put on alert amid fears that the growing lake could burst and trigger a sudden downstream flood.

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