12 killed during monsoon rains

AT LEAST a dozen people have been killed in Bhutan and Nepal and several others are missing as torrential monsoon rains hit the region, triggering landslides and inundating homes, officials said yesterday.

The annual monsoon season is crucial to replenish water supplies across South Asia, but it also causes death and destruction. Ten collectors of cordyceps – a fungus valued for its alleged aphrodisiac properties – died when their remote mountain camp north of Bhutan’s capital Thimpu was washed away. Five others were injured and were in a stable condition. Bhutan’s Prime Minister Lotay Tshering said a rescue team had been sent to the site.

In Nepal, the bodies of two Chinese workers were recovered yesterday from Sindhupalchok near the capital Kathmandu, taking the total death toll from floods in the district to three. Their bodies were found more than a hundred kilometres from where they had initially been swept away by the overflowing Melamchi River.

Thirteen others were still missing while hundreds more were displaced from their homes. More than 70 people had been rescued so far. Rescue efforts were hampered by telecommunication failures in the area.