Narayan Dhungana/RSS
KATHMANDU: A massive avalanche occurred at Tukuche Peak of Thasang Rural Municipality-2 in Mustang district on Sunday morning, which left 11 people injured. Most of them were students and teachers injured in the stampede.
The catastrophe, if it was not staved off by a gorge lying in between the Peak and human settle, would kill many people from around 100 households here, said Thasang Rural Municipality-2 ward chair Nar Prasad Hirachan, also witnessed the avalanche.
Hirachan shared that the avalanche occurred at around 11:40 am. Also known as Manapathi Mountain by the locals, Tukuche Peak continued to see avalanche till evening worrying the locals here.
Crops in the field, cattle’s shed and crops kept for drying in open spaces were damaged by the avalanche. Yaks were also killed in the avalanche. Some locals shielded themselves in huge rock while some saved from the disaster hiding in the corners, said Lal Bahadur Gurung, a local.
Over 160 students, teachers and staffers in the Janaadarsha Amar Singh Secondary School in the lower part of the human settlement were unscathed since they hid themselves inside the school, said school principal Khem Gurung.
According to Gurung, among the injured ones, some were school teachers and students. Five of them were critically injured while two were referred for further treatment.
There are two rivers in the gorge-Bokshi and Lancue. The snow fallen during the avalanche fell into the both rivers, thereby reducing the scale of damages in the human settlement.
Ward chair Hirachan added, “If the avalanche had fallen into only one out of two rivers, it would spell disaster to the human settlements. Both the rivers have murky water flowing since the avalanche. The snowball continues to fall down from the upper part of the rivers.”
Human settlements at Naurikot, Lajing, Gobang and Bokshikhola would be hit hard if there was no gorge, concluded Hirachan.
In this connection climate change expert Dr Ngamindra Dahal observed that it is a recent in series of unexpected climate event in Nepal.”Currently, it is generally the time the snow gets frozen, so such avalanche at present is the direct impact of climate change,” he argued. He urged all to be aware of such erratic events.
