Kathmandu / Rasuwa, 4 September 2026 — A hydropower worker trapped for nine days inside a debris-blocked tunnel in Nepal was pulled out alive on Friday, Krishna Janmashtami, after telling rescuers that he had sustained himself by chanting the Hare Krishna mahamantra throughout the ordeal.
Sanjay Sah, 30, a mechanical foreman with the Nepal Electricity Authority from Saptari district in Madhesh Province, was one of two men rescued from a tunnel at the Upper Trishuli 3A hydropower project in Rasuwa district. The second survivor, Kabir Maharjan, 45, a mechanical supervisor at the same site, was also brought out after being trapped about 170 metres inside the tunnel.
The rescue coincided with the Hindu festival marking the birth of Lord Krishna. Shortly after being carried from the tunnel, Sah said he had recited the mantra continuously while waiting in darkness. “I was chanting Hare Krishna mahamantra for the past nine days,” he told security personnel. Some accounts also recorded that he invoked the names of Krishna and Hanuman during the days underground.
security sources said Sah’s condition was stable and that he had no immediate health concerns. He received initial treatment at a local hospital in Trishuli. Maharjan, who required further care for complications, was airlifted to the Nepal Army Hospital in Chhauni, Kathmandu. Officials later said Maharjan’s injuries were more severe than Sah’s.
Stayed behind to help others
Sah said he had been working in the project’s control room when the disaster struck on 26 August. A glacial collapse on the upper reaches of the river system sent a torrent of ice, rock, water and mud through valleys along the Nepal–Tibet border, burying hydropower works and settlements. Sah directed colleagues toward safer ground and remained behind because he considered himself responsible for their safety. By the time he tried to leave, the escape route was gone.
“I was working in the control room. My responsibility was to save everyone’s life,” he said. “In doing so, I lost time. In the end, I could not get out myself.”
Inside the tunnel he remained in contact by shouting with three or four other workers nearby and said more people might still be trapped deeper in the passage, including toward the powerhouse. “The tunnel is very long. Some people may be trapped inside because of the force of the water,” he added.
How the rescue was achieved
Rescue teams from the Nepal Army, supported by specialists including Australian tunnel engineer Arnold Dix, spent days cutting a path through mud and rock that had sealed the tunnel. They eventually opened a narrow gap along the roof of a cable tunnel and crawled forward, calling out to anyone who might still be alive. On Friday they heard a faint reply in Nepali. Shortly afterwards they reached the two men.
Dix later described the sequence as “layer upon layer of miracles,” given the blocked entrance, unstable debris and the risk of using explosives to clear a way. Video released by the Nepal Army showed Sah being carried out on a colleague’s back, his face caked in mud, and Maharjan being lifted onto a stretcher as onlookers cheered.
Wider disaster and continuing search
The two men are the first workers known to have been rescued from hydropower tunnels after the 26 August floods. Officials estimate that more than 40 people may have been inside the Trishuli 3A tunnel when the water and debris struck. Hundreds more remain unaccounted for across several projects along the Trishuli and Bhotekoshi corridors. The Independent Power Producers’ Association of Nepal has reported large numbers missing from multiple sites.
By Friday the confirmed death toll from the floods had risen to about 1,295, with several thousand people still listed as missing and more than 13,000 already rescued from affected areas. Search operations continued at Trishuli 3A and at other hydropower tunnels, including sites where rescuers believe survivors could still be sheltered in dry chambers.
For Sah’s family and colleagues, the timing of the rescue on Janmashtami gave the recovery a particular resonance. Relatives of Maharjan described the news as a moment they had almost ceased to expect. Rescuers said the survival of the two men had revived hope that others might yet be found alive, even as the window for further rescues narrowed.
Sah credited the mantra with giving him the strength to endure nine days without certainty of rescue. He was later moved for continued medical observation as the army and engineering teams pressed deeper into the mountain.
