A Father's Desperate Journey: Walking Miles Across Nepal's Flood-Hit Mountains to Find His Missing Son

Talka Sada treks across Nepal's flood-hit areas with a backpack on his shoulders, searching for his missing son amidst exhaustion and deep worry. His heels hurt after walking long miles across Nepal’s mountains, and while his mood shifts between hope and helplessness, his focus remains entirely on finding Vinod, his 19-year-old son.

Sada, a man in his 50s from Saptari in Nepal’s Terai region, last spoke to Vinod a day before devastating flash floods struck on August 26, destroying homes, schools, bridges, and power plants across northern Nepal. Vinod had traveled to the Rasuwa district a month earlier to work as a laborer at a hydropower plant, where four other young men aged 17 to 19 also went missing.

Carrying less than 2,000 Nepali rupees—about $13 borrowed at a high interest rate—Sada and his brother traveled by bus from Saptari to Kathmandu. After checking hospitals and mortuaries without success, the brothers walked toward Nuwakot near the hydropower plant site, facing costly and exhausting conditions along the debris-covered roads.

Sada and his brother claim they have been repeatedly turned away from mortuaries and army camps, attributing the lack of assistance to deep-seated ethnic and caste divisions affecting Madhesis and their Musahar community. Meanwhile, Nepali authorities stress they are doing everything possible amidst a crisis that has killed more than 1,000 people and left thousands missing.

Despite fading hope and overwhelming grief, Talka Sada and his brother continue their relentless trek toward the power plant, determined to search every possible location for any sign of Vinod.