Nepal opens flood sites to specialists from India, China, Australia and South Korea

Nepal will let limited teams from India, China, Australia and South Korea into the Bhotekoshi flood zone after telling the world on Wednesday that its own agencies could handle the search. A senior official told the Kathmandu Post that governments whose citizens are missing applied massive pressure for at least specialists, if not full rescue contingents.

The National Disaster Management Centre assessed the ground. An inter-ministerial committee then approved help in three files: tunnel rescue, DNA testing and forensic identification. Full foreign search columns are still out. Foreign ministry spokesman Lok Bahadur Chhetri had said on Friday that offers were natural but that Nepal did not require such help for now. That line did not survive the weekend.

Wednesday's ice-and-rock collapse sent water, mud and debris down valleys that feed the Nepal-Tibet crossing. By Friday the Nepal police and disaster agency had counted 579 dead and close to 2,000 missing, a jump that included more than 900 hydropower workers added after companies filed late lists. More than 3,700 people have been pulled out. Eighteen schools are destroyed and twenty damaged, UNICEF said. The Red Cross put 93,000 people in great need.

Foreign missing still lead the diplomatic argument. Nepal Tourism Board figures cited on Saturday put Indians first at 288, then 100 Chinese, 65 Americans, 53 Ukrainians, 35 Australians and 33 British nationals. Other tallies circulating in New Delhi have used 320 uncontactable Indians. South Korea has been negotiating a slot even while Kathmandu was still saying no.

The work those teams are being asked to do is specific. Rescuers have been crawling through mud-choked tunnels. Identification of bodies recovered far downstream needs laboratories that Nepal's disaster system cannot scale in a week. China has already sent Premier Li Qiang to Gyirong and deployed about 500 military and paramilitary personnel on its side of the ridge.

India has flown relief tonnage into Kathmandu and recovered some of its own. External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar met 21 Tamil Nadu pilgrims in Delhi on Friday. Two Indian aircraft had by then delivered 47.5 tonnes. A third flight was being prepared. Infosys said its Public Services chief, Lax Gopisetty, remained unreachable after travelling in the region in a personal capacity.

A second hazard still sits above the valley. India's NDMA and China's water ministry have described two new lakes ponded behind the collapse debris, with estimates of 1.5 to 2 million cubic metres already held and more meltwater expected. Rescue paused once when the barrier began to overflow. Saturday's foreign specialists will work under that risk, not instead of it.

Kathmandu's reversal is narrow. It is also the first public admission that the Wednesday posture could not hold once the missing lists filled with other countries' names. The test now is whether tunnel crews and DNA kits arrive fast enough to change the count before the barrier lake decides the next move.