Photographer Rasik Maharjan confronts emotional strain while chronicling Nepal's flood tragedy
Documentarian Rasik Maharjan travelled to flood-ravaged Nuwakot, Nepal, where he filmed families searching survivor lists and grappled with the personal anguish of the disaster.
Rasik Maharjan, a Kathmandu-based photographer and documentary filmmaker, drove 60 kilometres west to Nuwakot to document the devastation caused by the Nepal-Tibet flash floods. The disaster, which has claimed more than 1,000 lives and left thousands missing, has left villages along the Trishuli and Tadi rivers flattened. In the town’s makeshift camp, families linger by helipads and an army centre, tracing trembling fingers over walls plastered with names and photos of the missing.
Maharjan says the sight of his own school friend’s absence on those boards shifted his work from reporting to an “agonising, personal nightmare.” By the sixth day, the emotional burden broke through his professional façade, leaving him yearning to set the camera aside and help directly. Yet he continues, believing that documenting survival stories—such as schoolchildren rescued from the floodwaters—offers the world a vital glimpse into the crisis.
Why it matters
The story shows how journalists bear personal trauma while bearing witness to large-scale disasters, highlighting the human cost behind the headlines.
How this story developed
- Aug 27 Flash Floods from Glacial Collapse Leave Hundreds Dead and Thousands Missing on Nepal-Tibet Border
- Aug 31 Updated casualty figures show 734 deaths and 2,498 missing in Nepal, with 16 deaths and 546 missing in Tibet.
- Aug 31 Stage‑four water restrictions were enacted after the Transcanyon waterline was destroyed.
- Aug 31 Drilling and air‑pumping operations at the Trishuli‑3A tunnel have begun to free trapped workers.
- Aug 31 The number of missing persons in Nepal has risen to about 4,200.
- Sep 1 Death toll rose to at least 950 and missing counts climbed to over 4,400, including about 80 Americans and up to 43 Australians.
- Sep 1 A second fatality was confirmed, bringing the death toll to two.
- Sep 1 An Australian survivor was located, reducing the number of missing Australians to 42.
- Sep 1 Chinese authorities reported 16 deaths in Tibet and 546 people still missing on the Chinese side of the disaster.
- Sep 1 John Giusti identified as the deceased victim and a third companion, Timothy Smith, remains missing.
- Sep 1 Two victims identified and rescue operations reported to have saved about 80 people.
- Sep 2 South Rim hotels and lodges were ordered to close indefinitely because of the water outage.
- Sep 3 Families held symbolic funerals for missing victims.
- Sep 3 Death toll rose above 1,270 and bodies recovered reached 1,252.
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