Kami Rita and fellow Sherpa guide Pasang Dawa have been competing for the title of most climbs of the world’s highest peak.
One of the world’s most skilled climbing guides on Mount Everest has reached the Earth’s highest peak for the 29th time, beating his own record for most times to the summit, according to expedition organisers.
Kami Rita reached the 8,849-meter (29,032-foot) peak early morning on Sunday, said Mingma Sherpa from Seven Summits Treks.
He was reported to be in good health and already on his way down to lower camps of the mountain. Mingma Sherpa said the weather on the mountain was good and favourable for climbing to the summit.
“Back again for the 29th summit to the top of the world…One man’s job, another man/woman’s dream,” Rita posted on his Instagram from base camp last week.
Rita had climbed Mount Everest twice last year, setting the record for most climbs on his first expedition and adding to it less than a week later.
He and fellow Sherpa guide Pasang Dawa have been competing with each other for the title of most climbs of the world’s highest peak. Dawa has made it to the top of the mountain 27 times.
Rita first climbed Everest in 1994 and has been climbing to the top almost every year since, earning the nickname “Everest Man”. He has built a reputation for being a vital guide for foreign climbers.
He builds on his father’s legacy, who was among the first Sherpa guides.
Hundreds of people will be attempting to climb the mountain this month, with Nepalese authorities issuing hundreds of climbing permits to foreign climbers.
Nepal is home to eight of the world’s 10 highest peaks and welcomes hundreds of people each spring, when temperatures are warm and winds are light.
Last year, more than 600 climbers made it to the summit of Everest but it was also the deadliest season on the mountain, with 18 fatalities.
In 1950, Roald Dahl wrote a short story titled Poison. The tale, set in colonial India and often found in deckle-edged children’s anthologies, tells a riveting story about racism.
In the story, a striped snake called a common krait slithers on the stomach of one of the main characters. The journey to save the character from the krait’s bite brings the plot to a panicky crescendo, to reveal that the poison was racism all along.
The krait possibly worked as an excellent metaphor because the fear of poisonous snakes is very real and pervasive in India, among other South Asian countries including Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
Hence, snakes have slithered their way into folklore, pop culture and media, but incidents of venomous bites may also be rising.
The World Health Organization estimates that 5.4 million people worldwide are bitten by snakes each year – half of those by venomous snakes, causing 100,000 deaths.
Snakebites in South Asia contribute to almost 70 percent of these deaths. Research from India alone indicates that 58,000 deaths result from about one million cases of snakebite envenoming there each year, the WHO said. Worryingly, this is likely to rise. A 2018 study from the University of Kelaniya in Sri Lanka also concluded that climate change is likely to increase the number of snakebites.
The WHO announced last year that it is stepping up its work to prevent snakebites in South Asia, which it describes as a “biodiversity hotspot for venomous snakes, and is also home to some of the world’s most densely packed agrarian communities”.
Where do snakebites occur most frequently in South Asia?
Data about snakebites in South Asia is patchy, a fact which prompted the WHO to add snakebite poisoning to its list of neglected tropical diseases in June 2017.
No official data has been available from Pakistan since 2007, when 40,000 snakebites occurred, killing 8,200 people, according to the WHO.
Nepal’s official Ministry of Health and Population does not have official data for snakebite deaths, either. However, a study carried out by doctors in Nepal showed that 40,000 people are bitten by snakes every year there, too, of whom about 3,000 die.
The WHO estimated that 33,000 snakebites in Sri Lanka between 2012 and 2013 had resulted in 400 deaths.
It is thought that these numbers are severely underreported, however, due to the lack of research into snakebites in South Asia. “Because they’re underreported, it’s thought to be maybe not as large of an issue,” said Rmaah Memon, a resident physician at Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Furthermore, as the study from the University of Kelaniya suggests, snakebites in Sri Lanka may already be increasing. That study carried out climate change projections and estimated that the annual snakebite burden could increase by 31.3 percent over the next 25 to 50 years.
The common krait, one of the ‘big four’ snakes in India [Shutterstock]
Which snakes are the most common?
Common species of snakes found in Pakistan and India include the big four: the common krait, Russell’s viper, saw-scaled viper and the Indian viper (naja naja).
Other species include the king cobra, which averages 3-3.6 metres in length but can grow as large as 5.4 metres. It is found in northern India and also in Nepal alongside the banded and common kraits, green pit vipers, checkered keelbacks and the Nepal kukri snake.
In Sri Lanka, species of Russell’s viper and the common krait are found, as well as the Indian python.
The king cobra can be found in northern India and Nepal [Shutterstock]
How dangerous are snakebites?
Of the 5.4 million snakebites which occur each year, 1.8 to 2.7 million result in “envenoming”. Envenoming is when the poison from a snakebite results in a possibly life-threatening disease.
“Snake venom can kill the victim from a few minutes up to two to three hours if not treated in time,” said Sadanand Raut, a doctor who, along with his wife Pallavi Raut, has made it his mission to prevent snakebite deaths entirely in the Narayangaon region of India’s Maharashtra state. Raut is also a member of the WHO roster of experts for snakebite envenoming.
Raut explained that the type of snake venom depends on the species of snake. He said that Indian cobras have very quick-acting neurotoxic venom, which means it has a paralysing effect that can cause symptoms minutes after the bite.
While krait bites inject the same type of venom, it may take longer – four to six hours after the bite – for symptoms to show. Krait bites might not hurt initially, but cause issues such as an inability to open the eyes, difficulty in breathing and cardiac problems when left untreated, Raut added.
Other snakes such as Russell’s vipers and saw-scaled vipers release vasculotoxic venom. These snakebites are very painful and result in necrosis, which means death of the body tissue. Raut explained that vasculotoxic venom can result in the thinning of the blood and can even lead to kidney failure. The symptoms can begin to show within minutes of the bite.
The Russell’s viper releases a vasculotoxic venom which can result in necrosis – the death of body tissue [Shutterstock]
What happens when a snake bites you?
The effects of a poisonous snakebite can be terrifying, according to those who have survived.
Kabiraj Kharel was about 18 years old when a krait bit his right hand. Kharel, now 50, whose family are farmers, had been removing ears from a batch of corn at his home in Sagarnath, Nepal, close to the Indian border, when he noticed the bite.
Kharel recalled feeling terrified. “I thought I was going to die,” he told Al Jazeera. He rushed to get medical help.
The nearest hospital was 25km (15.5 miles) from his house. Kharel said that he was aware of his surroundings for the first 20km, then his eyes and tongue began to tingle and go numb. After that, he lost consciousness.
Venomous snakebites can cause difficulty in breathing, an inability to open the eyes and cardiac problems. Symptoms can be felt quicker with some types of snakes – for example, Indian cobras – than others such as kraits.
If a venomous snakebite is left untreated or is treated too late, it can result in paralysis, breathing difficulties, bleeding disorders and kidney failure. Sometimes, the tissue damage can be bad enough to merit the amputation of a limb, resulting in permanent disability. Snakebites that are left untreated or are treated too late can prove fatal as well.
Kharel regained consciousness after being given doses of antivenom at the hospital. He woke up disoriented. “I thought to myself, ‘Where am I?’”
Jignasu Dolia, a wildlife biologist and conservationist in northern India’s Uttarakhand area, who carries out conservation-based research on king cobras, explained that not all snakebites result in envenoming, in fact about half of king cobra bites are “dry bites”, which means the snake does not inject any venom or may only inject small, non-lethal quantities.
However, all snakebites should be considered venomous until proven otherwise and victims should be taken immediately to a hospital emergency room.
A snake is ‘milked’ for its venom [Shutterstock]
How does antivenom work?
Dolia explained that antivenom is produced by “milking” venom out of snakes, injecting a small amount into an animal, usually horses, and harvesting the antibodies produced to refine them into the antidote.
Pakistan has, in the past imported antivenom from India, said Memon.
Memon said that the antivenom does not work as well on snakebites in Pakistan, even for the same species of snake, due to slight variations in geography and diet.
Can people easily access antivenom?
Awareness is a serious issue. Memon cited a 2000 study which showed that 44.5 percent of people interviewed in rural Sindh were unaware that antivenom even existed.
In rural Pakistan and India, in particular, there is often a significant time delay between snakebites and treatment for victims.
Memon added that people in rural Pakistan and India sometimes delay going to hospital because they prefer to visit local natural healers instead. While natural healers are important figures in local communities, they do not have access to the necessary antivenom.
This also results in the underreporting of snakebite cases. “Because they’re underreported, it’s thought to be maybe not as large of an issue,” said Memon.
She added that antivenom production across South Asia needs to be improved. In Pakistan, only one authorised site of antivenom production exists – Islamabad’s National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Antivenom is very expensive, so making it more affordable would also be a step in the right direction, she said. Most antivenom also needs to be refrigerated, which can be a problem in Pakistan where there are electricity outages, especially during the monsoon season. “Creating a kind of composition of antivenom that does not need refrigeration would be ideal.”
How is climate change affecting snakebites?
Climate change is another major issue. Research by Emory University, published in July 2023, showed a considerable increase in the likelihood of being bitten by a snake for every degree Celsius that daily temperatures increase.
There are many different species of snake and optimal living conditions vary for each, which is why it is hard to predict or even generalise about the effect of global warming on snakes generally.
Rising temperatures, however, are known to make habitats for some species of snake unsuitable for them. Conditions can become too dry for snakes to thrive, explained Michael Starkey, conservation biologist and founder of Save the Snakes, a California-based organisation dedicated to conserving snakes and mitigating human-snake conflict.
This can cause snakes to move to areas where conditions are better – often areas where humans are living, thus increasing the likelihood of humans and snakes interacting.
Human encroachment into the natural habitat of snakes has caused a rising incidence of snakebites [Shutterstock]
Some snakes may adapt to changing weather conditions while others may run out of suitable habitats altogether, eventually going extinct.
A rise in temperature is not the only climate change effect that could be causing an increase in human-snake interactions, resulting in more snakebites.
Following record-breaking rain in Pakistan in 2022, for example, Save the Children released a report stating that 54 percent of flood-affected families in Pakistan were sleeping outside in tents or makeshift shelters.
The report added that children sleeping without adequate shelter faced an increased risk of dangerous snakebites since stagnant water attracts venomous snakes.
Since climate-induced habitat loss is causing snakes to migrate, “believe it or not, they’re stressed out”, said Starkey. This may possibly explain more erratic behaviour that would lead to a higher number of venomous snakebites.
Starkey added that snakes are also losing their habitats to the construction of urban infrastructure which encroaches on their territory.
All of these things are a threat to snakes’ existence.
Why do we need snakes?
Experts say that it is essential for humans to learn to coexist with wildlife better, including with snakes, for their own benefit.
Snakes can actually be very helpful to humans. They typically eat rats and rodents and also serve as prey for hawks, owls and larger snakes. If snakes die out, the food chain and ecosystem will fall out of balance.
“They’re a pest control service and help with our ecosystems,” explained Starkey.
Globally, rodents destroy 20 to 30 percent of crops each year, according to the International Rice Research Institute, which says it is dedicated to abolishing poverty and hunger among people and populations that depend on rice-based agrifood systems.
A viper common in South Asia eats a white rat [Shutterstock]
Rodents also carry ticks that carry bacteria which causes Lyme disease. The ticks infect people by biting them, causing symptoms such as a fever, rash, joint pains and headaches. Researchers at the University of Maryland in the United States in 2013 found a link between the decline of rattlesnakes and a rise in Lyme disease.
Furthermore, killing snakes puts people at higher risk of being bitten. This is because the closer humans are to snakes, the more likely snakes are to act in defence and bite.
Dolia explained that king cobra bites are rare, at least in India. The few deaths that have been recorded due to envenoming by this snake have “usually occurred as a result of rescuers mishandling the snake”.
Dolia added that king cobras, which are endangered, usually eat other snakes, including venomous ones such as other types of cobra, which are known to cause many human fatalities.
So, how do we prevent snakebites and protect snakes?
Awareness of simple measures that will prevent snakes from entering homes or getting into crops will help, said Starkey. These include keeping grains in airtight containers so they do not attract rodents which in turn, attract snakes. General pest control around properties may also help.
There needs to be more awareness about what treatment to seek, said Memon, whose own grandfather died from a snakebite near the family home in Tharparkar in the southern Sindh province.
Instead of visiting doctors, people in South Asia rush to natural healers to treat snakebites. This leads them to miss the “golden window of time” to treat the bites quickly, explained Raut, adding that awareness should be spread in schools, rural centres, tribal institutes and medical institutions.
Memon said that the production of antivenom needs to be ramped up throughout South Asia, adding that making it more affordable would be a step in the right direction.
Most antivenom also needs to be refrigerated, which can be a problem in Pakistan where there are electricity outages, especially during monsoon season. “Creating a kind of composition of antivenom that does not need refrigeration would be ideal.”
Kathmandu, Nepal – On a bitterly cold morning in early January, somewhere near Tokmak city in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, Bimal Bhandari* began a risky journey to desert the Russian army he had been serving with. The 32-year-old Nepali national was with another compatriot who also was fighting for the Kremlin, in and against Ukraine.
The two men knew that getting away from the Russians would be a dangerous task, but they concluded that the risk was worth it, when weighed against their chances of survival as soldiers in Moscow’s savage war.
Bhandari was in touch with a Nepali agent in Russia through a relative. The agent and another people smuggler promised that they could design an escape plan: For $3000 each, the two Nepali soldiers would be out. Three days after Bhandari and his friend shared their location, a man who spoke Hindi came with a driver and vehicle at the crack of dawn, picked them up and dropped them at an unknown spot that the traffickers claimed was near the Russian-Ukraine border.
The man who spoke Hindi told them that handlers would be waiting to help them once they crossed over to the “other side”. So Bhandari and his friend stomped through knee-deep snow in minus 19 degrees Celsius (minus 2.2 degrees Fahrenheit) temperature for 17km (11 miles) in about seven hours. Famished and cold at the end of that journey, they called the traffickers again – only to be told to wait for 40 minutes for someone to pick them up.
It was three hours before a vehicle arrived. There were no rescuers inside. Instead, it had a Russian border patrol team that handcuffed them and took them in the vehicle. They were jailed for a day, their passports seized before Bhandari was taken to a health facility, suffering from hypothermia.
“It was our one and only chance to escape this brutal war and we failed,” he told Al Jazeera, from his hospital bed. “I do not want to recover – as soon as I get better, I’ll be pushed to the front line.”
It is a fear that’s gripping dozens, if not hundreds, of Nepali families. While Nepal’s government does not have exact numbers of the country’s nationals fighting as mercenaries for Russia, some analysts believe they may total as many as one thousand. At least 12 Nepalis have been killed in the fighting, and five others captured by Ukraine.
Nepal’s government is negotiating with Russia diplomatically for the repatriation of its citizens and the bodies of the deceased, the families of civilian-turned-mercenaries are losing patience. On Tuesday, the families demonstrated outside the Russian embassy in Kathmandu, demanding that their relatives be sent back, dead bodies be repatriated, fresh recruitments be halted and compensation be offered for those killed in combat.
It’s a far cry from the hope and promise of a life in Europe that first drew many of the recruits to Moscow’s side.
Atit Chettri, 25, a Nepali mercenary hired by Russia to fight Ukraine. He is among hundreds of desperate Nepalis serving a foreign force in search of a good salary and Russian citizenship [Photo courtesy Atit Chettri]
‘A good breakthrough’
Atit Chettri, a 25-year-old from Surkhet in western Nepal, had dreamed of a life in Europe. He had his eyes set on Portugal. But he had no pathway to the continent – until last October when he saw a TikTok video about Nepalis being recruited for the Russian army and posted an inquiry message.
Within a few minutes, he got a direct message from an agent with contact details. The agent asked for $9,000 and promised a salary of around $3,000 a month, along with perks and bonuses, and Russian citizenship for him and later for his family.
For Chettri, who was unemployed, this looked like a ticket to a better life. He accepted the offer. Four days later, he had a Russian tourist visa and a ticket to Moscow via Dubai booked for October 21, 2023.
It was Chettri’s first flight to a foreign land. “The agent had asked me to call him if I had problems at the immigration. The immigration authority stopped me for a while, but let go immediately after I called my agent,” Chettri told Al Jazeera from Ostrykivka, also a village near Tokmak.
Bhandari, who was offered a similar deal, flew to Russia on October 19. He had lived in Kuwait for six years previously but never managed to save enough to lift his family out of poverty. What he earned went into repaying interest on loans he had taken to get to Kuwait.
Frustrated, he had returned to Nepal and was working as a tipper truck driver when the chance to fight for Russia came along. “My family’s economic condition is miserable so I thought this would be a good breakthrough” said Bhandari.
He also connected with the traffickers via TikTok. They ran a travel agency in front of the Russian embassy in Kathmandu. On his way to Moscow via Dubai, Bhandari said he met close to 30 Nepalis waiting to board the plane to join the Russian army – some were travelling from Kathmandu, while others were Nepali migrant workers already in the Middle East.
When he landed in Moscow he was received by a local agent, also Nepali. “I was directed by the Kathmandu agent to give him $1,200 upon arrival. He took me to the toilet at the airport, and I gave him the money,” said Bhandari. He was then dropped at a recruitment camp where he signed a one-year contract to fight as a soldier.
Like Bhandari, 36-year-old Bharat Shah could not resist the offer. In Nepal, he worked as a traffic policeman before leaving for Dubai, where he earned 2,400 dirhams ($650) a month. So when agents offered $3,000 a month fighting for Russia, he agreed.
“I told him many times not to go to Russia. He said it was a great opportunity to make more money and later settle there with his family”, his father Kul Bahadur Shah told Al Jazeera over the phone from Kailali, in western Nepal.
Initially, that “opportunity” appeared to be paying off. Shah sent 250,000 Nepali rupees (around $1,900) back, after going to Russia.
But he was killed in battle on November 26. At home, his wife must now singlehandedly take care of their four-year-old son and a two-month-old daughter whom he never saw.
Nepali mercenaries at a camp in Russia-occupied Ukraine [Photo courtesy Atit Chettri]
‘We were like their shield’
Recruits say they received hardly any training before being sent to fight. While the traffickers had assured these civilians of a full-fledged, three-month-long training programme, they received less than a month of combat drills in the Rostov region in southwestern Russia bordering Ukraine. “I had only seen a gun from a distance, I had never held it before,” Chettri told Al Jazeera.
Another soldier, 34-year-old Ratna Karki*, was injured in battle and is currently in hospital. According to Karki, officers in his unit mostly send Nepali, Tajik and Afghan fighters to the front line. “The Russians just commanded us from behind. We were like their shield,” he told Al Jazeera over the phone.
Before Bhandari was deployed to his battalion, he thought he was part of a backup force for the Russians as he did not have any war skills. “They [Russian commanders] even make us go and inspect enemy grounds which is very scary,” said Bhandari. “I have killed so many, or else they would kill me,” he said.
“We have to be on standby, it could be anytime during the night or day. When they command, we need to go to the battleground,” said Chettri. “Some days we have to spend the entire night in a bunker.”
Unlike Bhandari, who was detained during his attempted escape, Ram Chandra Shrestha was fortunate enough to get away.
Shrestha, an ex-Nepal Army soldier, and three of his friends paid $2,000 each to human traffickers to get out from Ukraine and cross the border to Russia. He then reached Moscow and travelled to Kathmandu via New Delhi in December. “Many more have tried to escape, but have failed. Now the Russians have also tightened their vigilance, hence it is very difficult to flee,” Shrestha told Al Jazeera.
Nepal’s Foreign Minister Narayan Prakash Saud, confirming that Nepal has asked Russia to send back hundreds of Nepali nationals who have been recruited to fight against Ukraine and repatriate the bodies of those who were killed in the conflict, in an interview in Kathmandu, Nepal on Thursday, January 25, 2024 [Niranjan Shrestha/AP Photo]
‘A horror’
Three months into the war, Bhandari has not been paid even once, while Chettri has received less than half of what was promised.
Nepali fighters and their families are urging their government to step in, so the recruits can get back to their country.
“We are in regular communication with the Russian government, and have asked them for the name list of Nepali recruits, to repatriate them and send dead bodies soon.” Amrit Bahadur Rai, spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told Al Jazeera. “We have also urged them to provide compensation to the families of the deceased”. However, the Russian government has not publicly responded to any of the requests. The Russian embassy in Kathmandu was not available for comments.
Kul Bahadur Shah has given up on receiving his son’s body, but he is still waiting for compensation. “His friends said we will receive a compensation of at least $45,000 and also his widow and children would receive residence permit, education and state privileges from Russia,” he told Al Jazeera.
Back in Ukraine, Bhandari does not even care about the money anymore, he said. “I want to get back home,” he said. “When I talk to my family, I say I am safe, for them not to worry.
“But it’s a horror, I could be dead anytime.”
*Some names have been changed to shield the identities of individuals worried about their safety.
Court in Nepal finds Lamichhane guilty of raping an 18-year-old woman at a Kathmandu hotel in 2022.
A court in Nepal has found the country’s highest profile cricketer Sandeep Lamichhane guilty of raping an 18-year-old woman and has fixed January 10 for his sentencing.
The judgement was announced after a repeatedly delayed trial that had left him free to continue his sporting career.
The 23-year-old has been the face of cricket in Nepal and was the only player from the country to take part in prominent Twenty20 leagues across the world.
He was suspended as Nepal’s captain last year and taken into custody after police issued an arrest warrant for him over the assault in 2022. He was later released on bail.
Lamichhane could face up to 10 years in jail. His lawyers said he would appeal the verdict to a higher court.
“We did not expect this judgement … we are frustrated,” lawyer Sabita Bhandari Baral told the Reuters news agency about Friday’s verdict by the Kathmandu District Court.
“We’ll definitely appeal,” she said.
District Court official Ramu Sharma confirmed the verdict to the AFP news agency.
“The event was not consensual,” he said.
The former captain’s on-field success has boosted the sport’s profile in the Himalayan nation over the past few years.
When authorities issued an arrest warrant, Lamichhane initially failed to return from Jamaica, where he was playing in the Caribbean Premier League.
He was dismissed as national captain and arrested last year, but Nepal lifted his playing ban after he was freed on bail.
This allowed him to remain in the national team, including for the World Cup qualifiers and September’s Asia Cup.
Lamichhane has consistently denied the charge against him and enjoyed strong public support despite the accusations.
Hundreds of cheering cricket fans welcomed him when he returned to the field in February.
But his continued playing career has also sparked anger and caused numerous Nepalis to disavow the team.
Scotland’s cricketers refused to shake hands with him after their matches during an international tournament in Dubai.
The case took more than a year to conclude after repeated delays on procedural grounds.
Cricket has been growing in popularity in Nepal and the country was given one-day international status by the world governing body in 2018.
Lamichhane has been a major part of this rise as the most sought-after Nepali cricketer in lucrative leagues around the world.
The leg spinner’s big break came when he was snapped up for the lucrative Indian Premier League, the world’s richest cricket tournament, in 2018.
A spokesman for Nepal’s Civil Aviation Authority says a flight data recorder and a cockpit voice recorder have been retrieved from the site of the crash of a passenger plane that went down on approach to a newly opened airport in the tourist town of Pokhara.
Jagannath Niraula said the boxes were found on Monday, a day after the ATR-72 aircraft crashed, killing 68 of the 72 people aboard. He said they will be handed over to investigators.
Pemba Sherpa, spokesperson for Yeti Airlines, also confirmed that both the flight data and the cockpit voice recorders have been found.
Nepal began a national day of mourning Monday, as rescue workers rappelled down a 984 feet gorge to continue the search. Two more bodies were found Monday morning.
Rescuers scour the crash site in the wreckage of a passenger plane in Pokhara, Nepal, on Jan. 16, 2023. AP
It remains unclear what caused the crash, the Himalayan country’s deadliest airplane accident in three decades. The weather was mild and not windy on the day of the crash.
A witness who recorded footage of the plane’s descent from his balcony said he saw the plane flying low before it suddenly veered to its left. “I saw that and I was shocked… I thought that today everything will be finished here after it crashes, I will also be dead,” said Diwas Bohora. After it crashed, red flames erupted and the ground shook violently, like an earthquake, Bohora said. “I was scared. Seeing that scene, I was scared.”
Another witness said he saw the aircraft twist violently in the air after it began descending to land, watching from the terrace of his house. Finally, Gaurav Gurung said, the plane fell nose-first towards its left and crashed into the gorge.
Nepal’s Civil Aviation Authority said the aircraft last made contact with the airport from near Seti Gorge at 10:50 a.m. before crashing.
A woman cries as the body of a relative, a victim of the plane crash, is brought to a hospital in Pokhara, Nepal, Jan. 15, 2023AP
The twin-engine ATR 72 aircraft, operated by Nepal’s Yeti Airlines, was competing the 27-minute flight from the capital, Kathmandu, to Pokhara, 125 miles west. It was carrying 68 passengers, including 15 foreign nationals, as well as four crew members, Nepal’s Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement. The foreigners included five Indians, four Russians, two South Koreans, and one each from Ireland, Australia, Argentina and France.
Hundreds of people gathered outside the Pokhara Academy of Health and Science, Western Hospital, where the bodies are being kept. Relatives and friends of victims, many of whom were from Pokhara, consoled each other as they waited.
Bimala Bhenderi was waiting outside the post-mortem room Monday. She was planning to meet her friend, Tribhuban Paudel, on Tuesday when she heard that his flight had crashed. “I’m so sad, I can’t believe it still,” she said in tears.
Gyan Khadka, a police spokesperson in the district, said 31 bodies have been identified and will be handed over to family after officials finish post mortem reports. The bodies of foreigners and those that are unrecognizable will be sent to Kathmandu for further investigation.
68 of the 72 people aboard have been confirmed dead.AP
On Sunday, Twitter was awash with images that showed plumes of smoke billowing from the crash site, about nearly a mile away from Pokhara International Airport. The aircraft’s fuselage was split into multiple parts that were scattered down the gorge.
Hours after dark, scores of onlookers remained crowded around the crash site near the airport in the resort town of Pokhara as rescue workers combed the wreckage on the edge of the cliff and in the ravine below.
Local resident Bishnu Tiwari, who rushed to the crash site near the Seti River to help search for bodies, said the rescue efforts were hampered by thick smoke and a raging fire.
“The flames were so hot that we couldn’t go near the wreckage. I heard a man crying for help, but because of the flames and smoke we couldn’t help him,” Tiwari said.
At Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, family members appeared distraught as they waited for information.
Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal rushed to the airport after the crash and set up a panel to investigate the accident.
”The incident was tragic. The full force of the Nepali army, police has been deployed for rescue,” he said.
Nepalese rescue workers and civilians gather around the wreckage of a passenger plane that crashed in Pokhara, Nepal, on Jan. 15, 2023.AP
South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it’s still trying to confirm the fate of two South Korean passengers and has sent staff to the scene. The Russian Ambassador to Nepal, Alexei Novikov, confirmed the death of four Russian citizens who were on board the plane.
Omar Gutiérrez, governor of Argentina’s Neuquen province, wrote on his official Twitter account that an Argentine passenger on the flight was Jannet Palavecino, from his province.
The Facebook page of Palavecino says she was manager of the Hotel Suizo in Neuquen city. She described herself as a lover of travel and adventure tourism.
Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers told reporters Monday that “our hearts go out to all of the families of the crew and passengers” who died, adding that the government was providing consular support to the family of an Australian who was aboard the plane.
Pokhara is the gateway to the Annapurna Circuit, a popular hiking trail in the Himalayas. The city’s new international airport began operations only two weeks ago.
The type of plane involved, the ATR 72, has been used by airlines around the world for short regional flights. Introduced in the late 1980s by a French and Italian partnership, the aircraft model has been involved in several deadly accidents over the years.
In Taiwan two earlier accidents involving ATR 72-500 and ATR 72-600 aircrafts happened just months apart.
According to the Flight Safety Foundation’s Aviation Safety database, there have been 42 fatal plane crashes in Nepal since 1946.AP
In July 2014, a TransAsia ATR 72-500 flight crashed while trying to land on the scenic Penghu archipelago between Taiwan and China, killing 48 people onboard. An ATR 72-600 operated by the same Taiwanese airline crashed shortly after takeoff in Taipei in February 2015 after one of its engines failed and the second was shut down, apparently by mistake.
The 2015 crash, captured in dramatic footage that showed the plane striking a taxi as it hurtled out of control, killed 43, and prompted authorities to ground all Taiwanese-registered ATR 72s for some time. TransAsia ceased all flights in 2016 and later went out of business.
ATR identified the plane involved in Sunday’s crash as an ATR 72-500 in a tweet. According to plane tracking data from flightradar24.com, the aircraft was 15 years old and “equipped with an old transponder with unreliable data.” It was previously flown by India’s Kingfisher Airlines and Thailand’s Nok Air before Yeti took it over in 2019, according to records on Airfleets.net.
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Yeti Airlines has a fleet of six ATR 72-500 planes, company spokesperson Sudarshan Bartaula said.
Nepal, home to eight of the world’s 14 highest mountains, including Mount Everest, has a history of air crashes. Sunday’s crash is Nepal’s deadliest since 1992, when all 167 people aboard a Pakistan International Airlines plane were killed when it plowed into a hill as it tried to land in Kathmandu.
According to the Flight Safety Foundation’s Aviation Safety database, there have been 42 fatal plane crashes in Nepal since 1946.
According to a 2019 safety report from Nepal’s Civil Aviation Authority, the country’s “hostile topography” and “diverse weather patterns” were the biggest dangers to flights in the country. The report said such accidents happened at airports that had short strips of runway for takeoff and landing and most were due to pilot error.
The report added that 37% of all air crashes in Nepal between 2009 and 2018 were due to pilot error, not counting helicopters and recreational flights.
The European Union has banned airlines from Nepal from flying into the 27-nation bloc since 2013, citing weak safety standards. In 2017, the International Civil Aviation Organization cited improvements in Nepal’s aviation sector, but the EU continues to demand administrative reforms.
Charles Sobhraj, a convicted killer who police believe killed more than 20 western backpackers on the “hippie trail” through Asia in the 1970s and 1980s, returned to France on Saturday after nearly two decades behind bars in Nepal.
Nepal’s Supreme Court ordered the release of Sobhraj, known as the “bikini killer” in Thailand, and ‘The Serpent” for his evasion of police, on Wednesday citing his advanced age and health.
A French national who was born to an Indian father and Vietnamese mother, Sobhraj, 78, landed at Paris’ main international airport shortly after 7 am and was escorted off the plane by police for identity checks.
“He is well, he is a free man,” Sobhraj’s lawyer Isabelle Coutant-Peyre told Reuters. Asked what his next steps would be, she said: “He will file a legal complaint against Nepal because the whole case against him was fabricated.”
Sobhraj had been held in a high-security prison in Nepal since 2003, when he was arrested on charges of murdering American backpacker Connie Jo Bronzich in 1975. He was later found guilty of killing Bronzich’s Canadian friend, Laurent Carriere, and had served 19 years out of a 20-year sentence.
Sobhraj, pictured leaving a hearing in Kathmandu in May 2011.REUTERS
But he was suspected of more murders, including in Thailand, where police say he killed six women in the 1970s, some of whom turned up dead on a beach near the resort of Pattaya.
He was jailed in India for poisoning a group of French tourists in the capital, New Delhi, in 1976, before he could stand trial on the charges against him in Thailand.
Sobhraj told French news agency AFP on the flight out of Nepal that he was not guilty of murdering Bronzich and Carriere.
“I have a lot to do. I have to sue a lot of people,” AFP quoted Sobhraj as saying.
Sobhraj in the Doha airport waiting for his flight to France. AFP via Getty Images
Associates have previously described Sobhraj as a con artist, a seducer, a robber and a murderer.
In 2021, the BBC and Netflix produced a drama series based on the story of Sobhraj’s alleged killings.
France’s interior and justice ministries did not respond to Reuters questions about whether Sobhraj might face criminal charges in France. The statute of limitations for most serious crimes in France is 20 years.
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