An eight-year-old boy named Zoyal Ghale was reunited with his mother, Matti Maya Tamang, on Friday, ending a harrowing search that began when devastating floods struck northern Nepal. Ghale, who suffered a broken leg and facial injuries, had been airlifted to a hospital in the Nuwakot district a day earlier after being rescued from the disaster zone in the Rasuwa district.
The catastrophe unfolded on Wednesday morning when the lower section of a glacier near the Langtang Lirung mountain peak collapsed. The resulting avalanche of ice and rock triggered a massive landslide that swept through the valley, destroying entire communities and leaving the landscape unrecognizable. Official reports indicate that at least 580 people have died, with approximately 2,500 individuals still missing across the affected regions of Nepal and Tibet.
Ghale recalled being at school when the disaster occurred, describing the sudden onset of the flood as turning the environment “so, so black.” He managed to flee the school grounds with a friend, heading into a nearby forest where they climbed trees to escape the rising water and debris. Police officers who later discovered the boy provided him with two 10-rupee notes to encourage him to accompany them to the hospital.
For Matti Maya Tamang, the days following the disaster were marked by agony. She visited multiple shelters and collection points searching for her two sons, only to find their names absent from every list. “At the fourth place too, my children’s names were not on the list, and they were not there,” she told reporters. “I had come to accept that both my children were no more. All I could do was weep. I couldn’t hold myself together at all.”
The breakthrough in her search came on Thursday when she obtained the contact information for a journalist who had encountered Ghale at the Chakra Dev Hospital. After confirming the boy’s identity and his transfer to a facility in Kathmandu, the journalist arranged transportation for Tamang to reach her son. Upon arriving at the hospital, she found that she had already successfully located her younger son, and the reunion with Ghale restored her sense of hope.
UNICEF has reported that at least 17,000 children have been affected by the flooding across the Rasuwa, Nuwakot, and Dhading districts. The agency is currently collaborating with the Nepalese government to register and reunite families separated during the chaos. As Ghale recovers from his injuries, his mother noted that he remains his usual self, remarking, “Oh, he is always a mischievous kid. This is not his first broken bone.” The boy’s father, who works as a construction laborer in Japan, is currently traveling to be with his family. The report also notes that a day earlier, 8-year-old Ghale had been airlifted alone from the devastated northern district of Rasuwa with a broken leg and cuts on his face, while his mother, Matti Maya Tamang, 28, moved from one shelter and collection point to another looking for her two missing children. The report also notes that bajracharya and a Reuters team had gone to the hospital after hearing about a young boy who had been taken there and the authorities did not know where his family was. The report also notes that taking the school vehicle, and she had begun weaving at home, the boys had gone to school on Wednesday morning. The report also notes that then she heard what sounded like an earthquake. The report also notes that normally a 15- to 20-minute drive away, but said the landscape had become almost unrecognisable, she tried to head towards their school. The report also notes that entire communities were levelled, within minutes.