Landslide-Triggered Flood Sweeps Houses and Bridges on Nepal’s Budhi Gandaki

A dry landslide blocked the Budhi Gandaki River in Chumnubri Rural Municipality of Gorkha district in central Nepal before dawn on Sunday. When the blockage gave way around 4 am, a silt-laden flood swept downstream, washing away houses, bridges and damaging a hydropower construction camp. Authorities have reported no confirmed deaths, though four herders remain unaccounted for after livestock sheds were destroyed.

Local officials said roughly 35 houses were washed away in Paiyu and Bagar villages. Settlements at Jagat, Salleri, Dobhan and Ghatte Khola sustained damage. At least six bridges, including suspension bridges and parts of motorable bridges, were swept away or damaged, including a highway bridge linking Gorkha and Dhading. The camp of the under-construction 341 MW Budhi Gandaki hydropower project was hit. Eighteen workers at the site escaped to safety. The army airlifted six people from Jagat who were at risk from a separate landslide.

Gorkha’s chief district officer Dharmendra Kumar Mishra said villagers along the river banks had been urged to evacuate. The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority issued alerts for settlements in Gorkha, Tanahun, Chitwan and Nawalparasi districts. The Budhi Gandaki is a tributary of the Trishuli. The area is still recovering from a glacier-lake outburst flood in August that killed more than 1,400 people.

No rain had fallen in the upper catchment. Nepali Army teams confirmed the dry landslide near Philim. The river remained above danger level with fluctuating flows on Sunday morning. Rescue and assessment operations continue. Prime Minister Balendra Shah noted the army’s role in the early evacuations.

The incident underscores the vulnerability of Himalayan river valleys to landslide-dam failures even without rainfall. Further flooding risk persists until the water levels stabilise and the full extent of missing persons is clarified.