05/09/2026
She Was Presumed Dead. On Day 11, Chandika Was Found Alive
Her family had already performed her death rituals with a symbolic body made of kusha grass. Eleven days after the devastating flood, rescuers found 64-year-old Chandika Shrestha alive beneath the debris.
Nuwakot, Nepal — For eight long days, Chandika Shrestha’s family waited for any sign of her.
The devastating flood in the Bhotekoshi River had swept away homes and buried entire settlements. Chandika, a resident of Vidur Municipality–10 in Nuwakot, had disappeared after her house was destroyed.
Days passed without any trace of her.
Eventually, her family lost hope.
Believing that she had died, they prepared a symbolic body made of kusha grass and began performing her death rituals.
But her story was not over.
On the 11th day after the flood, rescuers made an extraordinary discovery.
Chandika was alive.
Found beneath the ruins
A team of the Armed Police Force Nepal, operating under the command of Police Inspector Suman Bik, was searching the debris of a damaged house belonging to Anand Shrestha in Betrabati Bazaar.
There, beneath the debris, they found Chandika in a semi-conscious condition.
After being pulled out alive, she was immediately taken for medical care.
She was airlifted to the Trishuli area, where she received initial treatment at a Nepal Army facility before being brought to the Nepal Army Hospital in Chhauni, Kathmandu, for further treatment.
From death rituals to a hospital bed
For her family, the news was almost impossible to believe.
The woman they had already mourned and whose death rituals had begun was suddenly alive.
What had started as a story of loss turned into one of the most remarkable rescue stories following the Bhotekoshi flood.
How Chandika survived for 11 days beneath the debris remains a question that will require further medical and personal accounts to answer.
But one thing is certain:
Her family had given up hope. The rescuers did not.
And on the 11th day, their search brought Chandika back alive.
From a symbolic funeral to a hospital bed, Chandika’s extraordinary survival has given a powerful message to families still waiting for their loved ones after the devastating floods:
Never give up hope.
