Kathmandu: While entire villages are being swept away by the river due to the mighty dance of nature, the punctuality of one person has become a lifeline for 1,643 innocent school children. Rajendra Davadi, the 47-year-old headmaster of Tribhuvan Trishuli Secondary School in Nepal’s Trishuli Valley, realized the darkness of the flood coming from the hill and rang the school’s emergency bell, saving the lives of thousands of children in the entire school by evacuating them to a safe place in a split second.
Emergency call from a friend: At around 9.20 am on Wednesday, Davadi received a call from a friend, warning that the river had swallowed everything, the village had been washed away, and that he should run immediately and save his life.
The teacher who rang the school bell: Initially, the school was thought to be safe as it was 60 metres above the river. But when Davadi noticed that the water level was rising dangerously, he immediately rang the school bell and ordered all the teachers to vacate the classrooms immediately.
Sheltered by the Bodhi tree: Within minutes, 1,643 children were taken out of the three-storey school building and placed under the sacred Bodhi tree on a high hill. Moments after the children reached the hill, the entire school building was washed away by the rushing water.
Although all the children were successfully rescued, history teacher Santos Pariyar (32), who had gone to prepare breakfast in a room on the riverside, and staff member Sultan Lama, who had gone back to close the main door of the school, were swept away by the floodwaters.
While villagers hailed Dawadi as a ‘real hero’, he got emotional as he looked at the ruins of the demolished school, saying, “It was my duty to save the lives of the children, but the pain of losing my two colleagues haunts me.”
According to Nepal’s Disaster Management Authority, 788 bodies have been retrieved so far, with over 2,500 people still missing.
Bodies washed ashore in India: Four bodies washed away in Nepal’s floods were found in the Gandak river in Uttar Pradesh’s Kushinagar district, taking the total number of bodies recovered in UP to 13.
Over 275 Indians missing: According to the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, over 275 Indians are yet to be contacted, while 149 people have been successfully rescued.
Scientific explanation of the glacier collapse: Scientists have confirmed that the main cause of this flood was the collapse of a huge mass of ice and rock, measuring about 50 acres, from the Langtang Lirung peak into a 1,200-meter-deep gorge.