More than a week after a glacier collapse triggered devastating floods along the Nepal-Tibet border, families of the missing are turning to social media and information from Nepal, as Chinese authorities maintain tight control over disaster reporting. Over 1,200 people are confirmed dead, and 4,216 remain missing, according to Nepali officials, while Chinese authorities report 541 unaccounted for on the Tibetan side, including 261 foreign nationals from 23 countries.
Families piece together information online
Fan Hong, a 31-year-old from Sichuan province, last heard from her husband Lin Bo on the morning of the disaster. Lin was working on the Syaphrubesi–Rasuwagadhi Highway, a 16km stretch linking Nepal to Tibet through the Gyirong border crossing, a project he began in 2024. Fan has been unable to reach him and has turned to social media for help.
“My husband works on a project in Nepal, about 5 kilometres from the Gyirong border crossing. I want to know what the situation is, but I haven’t been able to reach him,” she wrote on Rednote. Her post has gained more than 18,000 likes and nearly 4,600 comments, reflecting a broader online outpouring of grief and frustration.
Fan says rescue missions into the construction site have stalled, and relatives of survivors are asking Chinese authorities for permission to send their own drones or helicopters to look for the missing. “I feel more disheartened with each passing day. Feel colder and colder inside,” she told the Guardian. “I don’t even have any tears left.”
Official narrative versus online grief
While Chinese state media focuses on rescue efforts, social media platforms like Douyin show an emotional response, with photographs of missing customs officers shared under the hashtag “Salute to heroes guarding the nation’s gateway”. Families say they are relying on information from Nepal, foreign embassies, and social media, as Tibetan advocate groups report heavy restrictions on information from the Tibetan side.
On 30 August, Tibetan police reported that 10 people had been punished for spreading what authorities called “false information” about the scale of the disaster online. Tencho Gyatso, president of the US-based International Campaign for Tibet (ICT), said the crackdown is obstructing public reporting and relief efforts. “This crackdown is obstructing not just public reporting of the disaster and relief efforts but the basic work of establishing whether communities are alive and receiving the support that they need,” she said. “Sources are now afraid to speak to outside groups including ICT. One source told ICT it was ‘extremely unsafe’ to speak. Another asked us not to make further contact given the potential ramifications.”
Foreign nationals among the missing
Families of foreign tourists are also desperately seeking information. Sridhar Avvari, 43, his wife Deepti, 41, and their 14-year-old son Abhinav, British nationals living in India, went missing near the immigration area at Gyirong on 26 August. In a call days earlier, Deepti told her sister-in-law Priyanka Rapaka that there would be no signal but she would call when she returned to an area with network activity. After the flash flood, calls to Deepti’s phone stopped connecting.
“There was no signal, so we can’t talk … After coming down, I will call you again,” Deepti told Rapaka. “We didn’t get any information from China … We are checking online only who are rescued and… how many are dead,” Rapaka said.
Naresh Goyal is waiting for news about his sister, Neetu Goyal Tiwari, a 51-year-old missing British national who flew from India to Kathmandu on 14 August to join an Isha Foundation pilgrimage. The last message received was that they had reached Gyirong immigration office. Goyal found his sister’s name on a list of missing people circulating on social media but is unsure of its origin. “Whenever we ask the China government, they are telling us that they will update us through the embassy of the UK,” he says. “It is very painful here. Now we have spent at least seven days and every minute we are waiting.”
Authorities say rescue ongoing
Chinese authorities say they are now able to reach the main disaster zone by road, describing the region as an active search and rescue operation. State media reports focus on efforts to find hundreds of missing people, but families like Fan’s say the lack of direct communication leaves them in the dark. “Everyone seems to have forgotten about the workers on the Syaphrubesi–Rasuwagadhi Highway project … All the news coverage is about the hydropower station [in Nepal],” Fan said.
