JUMLA, Sept 11: Twenty-one-year-old Ramesh Budha of Lamri, Patarasi Rural Municipality 4, returned home 11 days after disappearing in the Bhotekoshi flood.
Ramesh had been out of contact since August 26, when the flood struck. When he suddenly appeared in the village on September 6, his family and the entire community were stunned. His family had almost given up hope of seeing him alive. They had spent 11 days waiting for news, fearing the worst.
But Ramesh had survived.
He spent a day and a night trapped in flood sludge inside a tunnel and then crawled for nearly eight hours before finally reaching the outside. For him, returning home was not simply the end of a journey. It was the beginning of a second life. “I had no idea if I would live or die,” Ramesh said. “But I survived.”
Sludge suddenly flooded tunnel
On the morning of Bhadra 10, Ramesh was working inside the tunnel at Dam No. 216 in Rasuwa, alongside other workers.
A strong gust of wind suddenly swept through the tunnel. The electricity went out. Before the workers could understand what was happening, sludge began rushing inside.
“I thought there had been an earthquake,” Ramesh recalled. “Sludge suddenly started flowing into the tunnel. I held on to the rods being used to install the formwork to keep myself from being swept away.”
He then lost consciousness. When he regained consciousness, most of his clothes had been washed away. He was left wearing only an undershirt and underwear.
All around him was sludge. The tunnel was dark, and he had no idea where the exit was. But he knew one thing: he had to survive.
Eight hours of crawling
Driven by that instinct, Ramesh began crawling through the sludge.
Several times, the mud nearly buried him. He would grab the rods inside the tunnel and pull himself up, only to sink back into the sludge.
His body was exhausted and breathing was difficult. But stopping could have meant death.
“At times the sludge was drowning me,” he said. “I would hold on to the rods and pull myself up. I had no idea if I would survive.”
After nearly eight hours of struggling through the sludge, Ramesh finally saw the open sky. It felt like being born again. But escaping the tunnel did not end his ordeal.
String of disasters curtail Upper Bhotekoshi's capacity
A helicopter raised hope, then left
A helicopter was circling overhead. Ramesh thought it had come to rescue them. He waved his hands and even removed his remaining undershirt and waved it as a signal.
“We waved at the helicopter and waved the shirt, hoping they would rescue us,” he said. “But it circled around, appeared to take video and then left.”
Seeing videos of himself and others desperately calling for rescue on social media still causes him pain. After surviving the tunnel, the helicopter represented more than a machine in the sky. It was a possible route back to life. But that hope disappeared with it.
His last calls to his parents
Mobile phones normally did not work inside the tunnel. But on the day of the flood, Ramesh suddenly received a network signal.
His phone had almost no battery left. Using what remained, he called his father once and his mother once.
“The phone never worked inside the tunnel before,” he said. “That day, the network suddenly came. I called my father once and my mother once, and then the phone switched off.”
Those were the last calls his family received from him. Ramesh and 14 others from Lamri village remained out of contact.
He had gone to Rasuwa to earn for a foreign job
Ramesh had not gone to Rasuwa intending to stay there. He was preparing to go abroad and had travelled there to earn money for a Romanian visa and to repay debt.
A ninth-grade student at Rinamoksha Secondary School in Dilli Chaur, he had left home on Shrawan 4 after following friends who had gone for work.
India has traditionally been a major destination for young people from Jumla, but locals say more youths have recently started travelling to Rasuwa because daily wage work there can bring in at least Rs 40,000 a month.
“My goal was to go abroad,” Ramesh said. “I needed money for that, so I went to Rasuwa hoping to earn enough.”
Instead, he returned from the edge of death, while the documents and belongings he needed for his foreign employment were swept away.
Tunnel became a death trap
Ramesh had been working through Tunnel No. 2 toward Tunnel No. 3 at Dam No. 216. His job involved fixing formwork and welding.
His work schedule ran from 7am to 11am, followed by lunch and a break, then from 1pm to 7pm. They were working when the flood struck.
“We had seen trees falling and small landslides during earlier rains,” he said. “But we never imagined such a huge flood.”
A siren was installed at the workers’ accommodation, but there was none inside the tunnel. Workers inside therefore had no timely warning of the approaching danger. Ramesh estimated that 60 to 70 workers were inside the tunnel.
“It is frightening even to think about what happened to them, especially with the lack of oxygen,” he said. “The tunnel used to get extremely hot even before. I cannot imagine what conditions are like now.”
Two other youths from Patarasi 5 and one from Patarasi 6 also managed to crawl out through the sludge.
Alive, but his dream was swept away
After escaping, Ramesh hurried toward his room to retrieve the documents needed for his foreign employment.
His clothes, mobile phone and other belongings were also there. But when he arrived, the room had disappeared.
The flood had washed away not only his job, but also the documents tied to his dream of going abroad.
Ramesh eventually returned home. Yet the tunnel remains in his mind.
He now prefers to spend much of his time alone. The darkness, rushing sludge, missing colleagues and fear of death continue to haunt him.
“I do not know how I survived,” he said. “We believed such floods did not reach the tunnel. I survived and came home. Perhaps I was meant to live.”
His mother, Badam Budha, had almost given up hope.
“We had lost hope,” she said. “But many of the friends who went with him are still missing. I pray to God that they too will be found safe soon.”
Ramesh’s return brought relief to his wife Niruta and their three-month-old daughter, but his happiness remains incomplete because many colleagues are still missing.
“We somehow fought our way through the sludge and survived,” Ramesh said. “I hope those trapped inside with us will also be rescued safely.”
63 Jumla residents still missing
Families of those missing in the flood have complained that the state response to search, rescue and relief has been inadequate. They say affected families need greater support, including psychological counselling.
Chand Budha, another survivor, said he continues to suffer from itching and allergies and remains frightened by what happened.
“We are still afraid,” he said. “Those who have returned need psychological counselling.”
Meanwhile, Kalpana Nepal Acharya, chief of the National Human Rights Commission’s Karnali Province office, visited Lamri and met families of 15 people who remain missing. She gathered information about their condition and ongoing rescue and relief efforts.
“The condition of families whose relatives remain missing in the Bhotekoshi flood is extremely difficult,” she said. “They urgently need relief and psychological counselling, and everyone must work together.”
According to Jumla Chief District Officer Tej Prakash Prasai, 63 people from the district remain out of contact. Patarasi alone accounts for 49, while four are from Chandannath, one from Sinja and nine from Guthichaur.
So far, 24 people from Patarasi, one from Guthichaur, three from Sinja, one from Hima and one from Kanakasundari have made contact.
Ramesh is home. Chand Budha is home.
But many doors in Lamri remain open, with mothers waiting for sons, wives waiting for husbands and children hoping their fathers will return.
Ramesh escaped the tunnel and made it home. But his thoughts remain with those whose families are still waiting.
“We survived,” he said. “Now I hope they return safely too.”
