When a mountain gave way above the hydropower plant where he worked, Nepali mechanical foreman Sanjay Sah had a choice — run for his life or stay behind to help others.
He chose to stay.
The 30-year-old was rescued alive on Friday alongside fellow worker Kabir Maharjan, nine days after devastating floods, rock and debris swept through the valley where the Upper Trishuli 3A Hydropower Station stood.
Sah said he had been inside the tunnel’s control room when news of the disaster upstream reached the workers.
“Normally there are four to six people there, but there could have been 40 to 45 people that day,” he told army officials from a stretcher, with an oxygen mask strapped to his face.
“My responsibility was to save everyone’s lives. When there was such a big accident, it was not right for me to run away.”
Sah said he immediately warned the others to escape, but he was unable to make it out himself. By the time he attempted to flee, the disaster had already cut off his escape route.
For the next nine days, he remained trapped in darkness inside the tunnel, relying on prayer to maintain hope.
He said he was able to communicate with three or four other workers elsewhere in the tunnel and believed more people could still be trapped deeper inside the mountain.
Footage released by the Nepali Army showed rescuers carrying Sah out of the tunnel on a worker’s back, with his face covered in mud.
Sah and Maharjan are the first workers to be rescued alive from the hydropower projects affected by the disaster. A small group of workers had managed to escape from another tunnel several hours after the floods struck.
Officials estimate that at least 900 people could still be trapped inside tunnels linked to six hydropower projects along the Trishuli River.
The rescue of Sah and Maharjan has provided a rare glimmer of hope amid the massive search operation, with thousands of people still missing after the unprecedented disaster.
At least 1,287 people have been killed in Nepal, while 5,083 others remain missing and thousands have been displaced. In Tibet, China has reported 21 deaths and 541 people missing.
Sah and Maharjan have since been taken to an army hospital in Kathmandu, where they remain in intensive care.
