Indians flee river's backed-up load

169 believed dead upstream after Nepal slide dams flow

Nepalese rescuers search for bodies of victims of Saturday's landslide as a damaged school bus lies on left, in Mankha, about 120 kilometers (75 miles) east of Katmandu, Nepal, Monday, Aug.4, 2014. Nepalese authorities said there is no hope that more than 150 missing people are still alive after being buried by piles of rocks, mud and upturned trees.  (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)
Nepalese rescuers search for bodies of victims of Saturday's landslide as a damaged school bus lies on left, in Mankha, about 120 kilometers (75 miles) east of Katmandu, Nepal, Monday, Aug.4, 2014. Nepalese authorities said there is no hope that more than 150 missing people are still alive after being buried by piles of rocks, mud and upturned trees. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

PATNA, India -- Rescue workers urgently evacuated tens of thousands of people in eastern India on Monday after a deadly landslide in neighboring Nepal blocked a river that threatened to burst its banks and submerge scores of Indian villages.

Authorities in Nepal said there is no hope that more than 150 missing people are still alive after being buried by piles of rocks, mud and upturned trees in Saturday's landslide in Mankha, about 75 miles east of Katmandu. Nineteen others are confirmed dead.

A section of the Araniko Highway, which connects Nepal with China, was swept away, and rising water around the blocked Sunkoshi River led thousands to seek higher ground. Trucks were backed up on both sides of the highway where it had been blocked by the landslide.

Gopal Prasad Parajuli, chief of the local district, said Monday that there was no chance of finding anyone alive in the landslide. Large digging equipment was being used to find bodies -- equipment not generally used when there is hope of finding survivors.

But as disaster workers continued to clear the debris Monday, the danger area moved downstream to eastern India, where 125,000 people are in peril.

The landslide blocked a mountain river in Nepal, causing it to back up and form a large lake that is threatening to overflow and flood the Indian villages.

"We are keeping our fingers crossed right now," said Aniruddh Kumar, a senior disaster management official in India's Bihar state. He said it is still not clear how much water might come down from the lake.

Nepal's army triggered three controlled explosions Saturday to allow some water to flow out of the lake, but much of it remains trapped.

"Despite constant rain and unsupportive weather, we succeeded in draining more water from the river blockage," said Jagadish Chandra Pokharel, a Nepalese army spokesman. "We are acting carefully to avoid possible flooding in downstream areas."

Kumar said Bihar state has asked all government doctors and civil officials in threatened areas to cancel vacation plans. Indian soldiers, as well as air force helicopters and jets, were on standby for relief and rescue operations.

The local government also invoked a law allowing authorities to forcibly evacuate villagers who refuse to leave their homes and property and move to higher ground or government-run relief camps. The government has so far evacuated 60,000 people and set up 120 such camps.

Kumar said all public schools in the area have been closed to provide space to house the large number of people being evacuated.

The annual monsoon season, which runs from June through September, is vital for the largely agrarian economies of South Asia but every year also brings floods and landslides that kill thousands and submerge hundreds of villages.

Another landslide hit in a village in eastern Nepal on Monday, killing four people and leaving six others missing. And the death toll from a major landslide in western India last week rose to 108, according to rescue official Sandeep Rai Rathore.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India, on a visit to Nepal, promised aid for the country.

"We are committed to helping you this time," Modi said.

Information for this article was contributed by Binaj Gurubacharya, Niranjan Shreshtha and Indrajit Singh of The Associated Press and by Bhadra Sharma and Gardiner Harris of The New York Times.

A Section on 08/05/2014

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