Nepal’s former Forest and Environment Minister Madhav Prasad Chaulagain on Thursday expressed concern over the lack of timely information sharing between Nepal and China ahead of the devastating flash floods, warning that the death toll could rise significantly as the extent of the disaster becomes clearer.
A glacier collapse in Tibet triggered catastrophic flash floods in border areas of China and Nepal on Wednesday morning. Nepal has reported 270 deaths, while the combined toll in Nepal and Tibet is reported to have crossed 500. Thousands of people, including nearly 300 Indian tourists, remain missing.
According to a report by new agency PTI, Chaulagain, who previously also held the physical infrastructure portfolio, said Nepal had experienced a smaller-scale glacier collapse in 2025, highlighting the need for timely sharing of early-warning information between the two countries.
“It has become quite concerning because it was early in the morning. We observed that there was some lack of timely information exchange between the two countries,” he told PTI.
He said Nepal and China had now agreed to improve the sharing of information, but suggested that the absence of timely alerts may have contributed to the lack of preparedness on both sides.
“Apparently, yesterday, the Meteorological Department and Chinese authorities realised this, and from now onwards they have agreed to share timely information,” Chaulagain said.
He added that the Chinese side had also suffered extensive damage and may not have been adequately prepared.
“Otherwise, they might have provided the information, because the border-crossing points and the nearby downstream areas were also badly affected,” he said.
Chaulagain said the floods were not caused by an earthquake, as initially reported, but resulted from a river blockage caused by a landslide and falling ice, which subsequently led to an outburst.
“As far as we know, it's not because of the earthquake thing, but it's because of the river blocked by the landslide and ice fall,” he said.
However, he said the precise cause of the landslide remained unclear. Climate change, rising temperatures and glacier melt were among the possible contributing factors, he said.
“So far, we have received a generic kind of explanation only, like now we know this climate change thing, temperature rising, glacier melting,” he said.
Nepal needs greater access to information and satellite imagery from the Tibetan side to establish exactly what happened, Chaulagain said.
“We are hoping that we'll get more clarity in the days to come,” he said.
Chaulagain warned that the number of missing people, including Indian tourists, could increase because many travellers in the affected region may not have been included in official records.
The affected area is not only a Nepal-China border crossing but also a pilgrimage route used by people travelling towards Kailash Mansarovar and other religious sites, he said.
“There are many people crossing from the Indian border. So they also visit that site,” he said, adding that trekkers and domestic pilgrims may also have travelled through the area without formal records.
“This gives a picture that the death toll would rise unbelievably,” Chaulagain said.
Chaulagain said India was among the first neighbouring countries to respond to the disaster, with the Indian embassy initiating coordination and joint search efforts.
He said authorities were gathering information from the ground to determine the number of tourists who were in the affected areas and trace those who remain missing.
The Nepal government has declared a state of emergency in the affected area and is mobilising available resources for rescue and recovery operations, he said.
Nepal has disaster-management mechanisms and early-warning systems for smaller and medium-scale disasters, including systems to monitor high-risk glacial lakes and issue alerts through mobile networks.
However, the scale of the latest disaster was beyond what authorities could have anticipated, Chaulagain said.
“This scale of disaster is beyond anyone's, like, comparison. Nobody was prepared,” he said.
Chaulagain said Nepal was particularly vulnerable to climate-related disasters despite contributing relatively little to global greenhouse gas emissions.
“We are mountain countries, and we have not done any wrong against our environment... But we are facing the challenge,” he said.
“Because of the global warming thing, the mountains are suffering, mountain people are suffering, and this is a very sad story that we have witnessed here,” he added.
The former minister said the floods had also caused extensive infrastructure damage, with around 40 km of roads and nearly 18 bridges swept away.
Authorities are working to rebuild damaged infrastructure and create emergency routes to reconnect affected communities, he said.
On international assistance, Chaulagain said India had sent a flight carrying relief materials, while China had offered funds for relief operations. The World Bank, the United States and volunteer organisations were also providing assistance.
“We actually need that in a time like this,” he said.
