Nepal tunnel survivor finds solace in village homecoming

TILATHI KOILADI, Nepal — After nine days trapped in a hydropower tunnel and a week of hospital care following his dramatic rescue, Sanjay Sah, a rare survivor of last month’s devastating glacier collapse in Nepal, finally returned to his village and family on Sunday (Sept 13).It was a homecoming marked by relief and joy but also grief.”I was trapped in the tunnel … I felt trapped in the hospital room too. I finally feel free here in my village,” Sah, 30, said after arriving in Tilathi Koiladi, near the border with India.At least 1,386 people have died and 5,130 are still missing across Nepal weeks after a Himalayan glacier collapsed near the Chinese border, unleashing a wall of mud and water that crashed through mountain valleys destroying everything in its path.Around 900 power station workers remain missing. Sah, a mechanical foreman at the Upper Trishuli 3A Hydropower Station, was one of just three pulled from debris-buried tunnels extending deep under the mountains.He survived in the darkness, drinking flood water and seepage from the mountain rock until rescue workers finally reached him.