Nepal floods kill 270, leave 288 Indians missing as India mobilizes rescue

On a Wednesday in late August, a collapse of ice, mud, and rock into a Nepali mountain river set loose a catastrophe that has claimed at least 270 lives and left more than a thousand souls unaccounted for across Nepal and China. Among the missing are 288 Indian nationals — workers, pilgrims, and travelers — whose absence has drawn two governments into urgent coordination. In the face of such sudden erasure, the human response has been what it always is: a reaching toward one another across borders, bureaucracies, and broken terrain, hoping that some of the missing might still be found.