Non-Stop Choppers, 48-Hour Queues: Inside Nepal's Himalayan Rescue

With her one-year-old son tied to her back, Pema waits for an Army chopper to fly to Kathmandu. Pema is among 100 flood victims rescued by Nepali Army choppers from Chilime village in Rasuwa district near the Nepal-Tibet border.

Pema, her husband and their son Lamu hope to get a chopper ride to Kathmandu, where Pema says she will live with her brother, unsure of when she will be able to return to her village.

Pema told NDTV that she witnessed the horror of the August 26 floods from her village in the higher reaches, watching homes, shops and roads being washed away.

Pema and her son Lamu wait for chopper to take them to Kathmandu

"It's very tragic, everything is gone. We have been brought here by the Army. Now we hope to get a chopper ride to Kathmandu where we will live with my brother for now," Pema told NDTV.

'Waiting to return home': NDTV's Sikta Deo speaks to Pema, who is carrying her young son Lamu on her back while waiting for evacuation after being stranded by devastating flash floods.

Watch.#NepalFloods @deosikta pic.twitter.com/s3XvCBS16c

— NDTV (@ndtv) September 2, 2026

Nepali Army choppers are flying non-stop, rescuing people from flood-affected areas in Rasuwa and Nuwakot.

The rescued are being brought to Dhunche, where there are long queues of people waiting to get a seat on a chopper to Kathmandu.
Many of those rescued from the flood zone want to move to Kathmandu, and the only way out are the Army choppers as the devastating floods have destroyed and submerged many roads in and around the area.

The NDTV team reporting from the Dhunche Army helipad on the rescue operations witnessed long queues of locals and rescued citizens waiting in line for a ride to Kathmandu.

The Army is prioritising the use of choppers to first rescue those stranded in higher reaches. People sit in long, serpentine and ever-expanding queues, waiting for as long as 24 to 48 hours for their turn to hop on to a chopper.

#NepalFloods | A desperate wait for a way out: The queue to Kathmandu is getting longer, and so is the wait for a chopper ride. NDTV's @DeoSikta reports from Rasuwa's Dunche helipad area.

Watch this special ground report pic.twitter.com/PYKGPQewmg

— NDTV (@ndtv) September 2, 2026

They are registered at the Army camp and names are called out in order for people to board the chopper to Kathmandu.

Watch | The River Took It All: Aerial Visuals From Nepal Show Scale Of Catastrophe 

Nepal has been carrying out search and rescue operations for people believed to be trapped inside 11 flood-affected hydropower projects in Rasuwa and Nuwakot along the Bhote Koshi and Trishuli river corridors.

According to the Independent Power Producers' Association, Nepal (IPPAN), a representative body of private-sector power developers, a total of 897 people employed at 11 hydropower projects in the flood-affected districts of Rasuwa and Nuwakot remain out of contact.
At the request of the Nepali government, Indian and Chinese tunnel technicians have arrived in Nepal and are engaged in rescue efforts to evacuate people trapped inside hydropower tunnels.

Massive flash floods, believed to have been triggered by a collapse or avalanche of ice and rock near the Nepal-Tibet border, devastated towns and villages in northern and central Nepal on August 26. Over a thousand people have been killed and thousands remain missing.

The Bhotekoshi River, flowing south from the Himalayan border region, carried the floodwaters downstream, sweeping away homes, vehicles, roads and bridges and causing extensive damage to hydropower projects.