New Delhi: At least 289 have been killed and 826 reported missing in Nepal after flood water and mud wiped out part of its Himalayan border crossing with China. Rescue and relief efforts are underway with Beijing warning that secondary mudslides could occur “at any time”, Financial Times is reporting.
Citing a statement by Chen Xi from China’s Gyirong Border Defence Company in Tibet, the report adds that “surrounding mountains could suffer landslides at any moment, and there is also a risk of secondary mudslides”. The report by Joe Leahy in Beijing, Andres Schipani and Michael Stott in New Delhi, and Krishn Kaushik in Mumbai adds that continuous rainfall at the disaster site could lead water levels to rise.
It goes on to say that the flash floods, which Nepal’s PM Balendra Shah described as an ‘unexpected thunderbolt of a natural disaster’, occurred on the Bhote Koshi, a river in Nepal’s mountainous district of Rasuwa, bordering Tibet.
Nepal’s Prime Minister has called for “faith and hope” during this difficult time.
In an update from Rasuwa, the worst-affected district in Nepal, FT reports that 41 injured were being treated and more than 3,300 police were deployed for rescue and relief efforts. “The largest number of dead bodies recovered was from Chitwan district, far downstream from the Chinese border.”
According to the report, Sunil Sharma, a spokesperson for Nepal’s tourism board, said 133 of those missing were Indian pilgrims travelling towards Kailash Mansarovar in Tibet, a pilgrimage site for Hindus.
Many of the Indians now missing were traveling to Kailash Mansarovar after the pilgrimage was temporarily disrupted during the COVID-19 pandemic as a result of deadly border clashes between India and China that froze diplomatic ties, reports The New York Times. It adds that among the hundreds of tourists missing, “the largest contingent—at least 100 people—are from India”.
“The influential Indian spiritual guru and entrepreneur known as Sadhguru said in a post on X that 77 people who were on tours organized by his Isha Foundation were at an immigration center at the Nepal-Tibet border when the floodwaters came,” says the report by Mujib Mashal, Suhasini Raj, and Hari Kumar.
In a statement on X, Sadhguru wrote that the whereabouts of those at the immigration centre at Gyirong in Tibet could not be confirmed.
At least 50 pilgrims were in the region on a separate tour organised by a travel agency based in Tamil Nadu’s Kumbakonam. Friends and relatives of Syed Umar Farooq, the travel agent leading the tour, told the publication that they had been unable to contact him since the group left their hotel early that morning.
However, Farooq’s family was able to reach out to another travel group of 20 pilgrims, and they were safe.
Meanwhile, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Smash The Patriarchy’ event in Pune, too, caught the global media’s eye. The BBC reports on why the event matters and how women swearing became a boiling topic in Indian politics. Geeta Pandey writes: “Recent footage of young women swearing during a protest in India has sparked an unusual debate: are expletives worse when they come from women?”
The storm began when videos of women protesters swearing and cursing went viral during the Cockroach Janta Party-led protest at Jantar Mantar. Some of the expletives were targeted at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, resulting in political leaders, including Modi, condemning women protesters.
Modi himself addressed the ‘issue’ in a selfie video where he said it was “a culture shock” to see young women using expletives, but added that he forgave them.
“The protests ended a month ago, but Rahul Gandhi’s remarks have renewed the debate over how female activism, women voicing their views, stridently—even with expletives—are viewed in the country,” the report says.
At the Pune event, Rahul said, “If boys swear, there is no problem and it is allowed. But if a girl swears, it is a cultural shock.” Pandey looks at whatever transpired as more than a “double standard”.
Journalist Namita Bhandare tells the BBC: “…women in India of course swear, it’s not new.” She adds that many villages in northern India have a wedding ritual where women from the bride’s family welcome the groom’s party with a string of expletives.
The report goes on to point out that Modi and his party colleagues have faced criticism on several occasions for remarks seen as disrespectful towards women. Several senior BJP leaders have also been called out for misogynistic comments about women’s clothing. Modi himself has drawn criticism for using terms such as “Jersey cow” at a 2004 rally and “50 crore ki girlfriend”, or “girlfriend worth Rs 50 crore”, at another event in 2012, the report notes.
Pandey highlights that this criticism is not confined to the BJP, and Congress leaders have also been called out for making misogynistic remarks. BBC also interviewed the social activist Sunil Jalan, who runs a ‘Gali Bandh Abhiyan’. Jalan tells the BBC: “…we must focus on swearing, not on the gender of who uses them.”
Archana Shukla of the BBC reports on the rising sugar prices and depleting sugar reserves this festive season. “India, the world’s largest consumer of sugar, is trying to avoid a bittersweet festive season. Sugar prices have jumped nearly 40 percent in the past two months, prompting the government to import 1 million tonnes for the first time in nearly a decade,” the report says.
The move comes as demand picks up from August, driven by festivals such as Ganesh Chaturthi, Dussehra and Diwali, followed by the busy wedding season. Food and beverage companies also begin building up stocks for one of their peak sales periods, adding further pressure on wholesale prices, says the report.
According to it, production is now expected to be 30.6 million tonnes this season, which runs from October 2025 to September 2026—11 percent below the government’s earlier estimate of 34.3 million tonnes.
Shukla asks how the world’s second largest sugar producer ended up in need of sugar imports.
The supply squeeze has sent prices soaring. A kilo of sugar that cost around Rs 40-45 in May and June was selling for over Rs 58-60 in several markets by August, though prices have since begun to ease slightly. While the government has blamed the harsh weather conditions and El Niño wave for lower sugar production, experts say the Indian government overestimated its sugar production and allowed exports of sugar before the extent of the shortfall became clear, the report notes.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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