Nepal tunnel survivor finds solace in village homecoming

TILATHI KOILADI, Nepal – After nine days trapped in a hydropower station tunnel and a week of hospital care following his dramatic rescue, Sanjay Sah, a rare survivor of last month’s devastating glacier collapse in Nepal, finally returned to his village and family on Sunday.

It was a homecoming marked by relief and joy but also grief.

“I was trapped in the tunnel. ... I felt trapped in the hospital room too. I finally feel free here in my village,” Sah, 30, said after arriving in Tilathi Koiladi, near the border with India.

At least 1,386 people have died and 5,130 are still missing across Nepal weeks after a Himalayan glacier collapsed near the Chinese border, unleashing a wall of mud and water that crashed through mountain valleys destroying everything in its path.

Around 900 power station workers remain missing. Sah, a mechanical foreman at the Upper Trishuli 3A Hydropower Station, was one of just three people pulled from debris-buried tunnels extending deep under the mountains.

He survived in the darkness, drinking flood water and seepage from the mountain rock until rescue workers finally reached him.

Sah left the hospital in the capital Kathmandu on Friday and the next day boarded a bus for an overnight journey home.

Around 60 people, mostly women, awaited his arrival in Tilathi Koiladi on Sunday.

Family members, including his parents, uncle, wife and daughter, performed a traditional welcome ceremony, washing his feet as part of a cleansing ritual.

After his mother dabbed a pink vermilion tika on his forehead, Sah bowed. They embraced and then broke down in tears.

“My son!” his mother cried, holding him tightly and kissing him on the cheek.

Women who had gathered to witness the reunion used their colorful saris to wipe the tears from their eyes.

Many in Tilathi Koiladi are still awaiting word of the fate of family members who had been working at hydropower stations hit by the flooding.

“There are more people from my village still missing after the flood,” Sah said.

One family, he said, called him while he was still in the hospital to ask if he had seen or heard from a missing relative who had been working at a different power station. He had to tell them he had not.

At home among family, Sah said he is ready to put his ordeal behind him.

“I will stay in my village for some time now. I want to meet all my people,” he said. “But if I am called back to duty, I will go.”