Suresh Kumar Karanjit had survived Nepal’s devastating floods, but the medicine he needed for his heart condition was out of reach. His younger brother had died, and the relief center where he was sheltering in Devighat did not have his prescribed medication. To buy it, he sold a carton of donated noodles for 400 rupees, the Associated Press reported on Sept. 3.
“The relief materials are being provided, which is good. But there is a lack of medicine,” Karanjit told AP.
His experience illustrates the struggle facing survivors who have lost relatives, homes and access to everyday necessities. Authorities said medical teams and medicines were available at shelters, but Karanjit’s prescription remained a gap. Elsewhere in Nuwakot district, residents were navigating the destruction themselves: in Bidur, soldiers helped people cross the Trishuli River on a temporary zip line, according to the AP report. More than 4,500 displaced people were staying in 38 relief centers at the time.
For communities separated by destroyed roads and bridges, help is now arriving by air. Nepal’s army is using heavy cargo drones to carry food, medicine, fuel and other essentials to stranded residents, including across the Trishuli at Devighat, Reuters reported on Sept. 9.
“Most of our helicopters are busy with rescue operations,” Santosh Budhathoki, a contract drone pilot for the army, told Reuters. He said drones had become essential for supplying areas without another available delivery route.
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The operation follows late-August flooding that devastated communities downstream from a Himalayan glacier collapse near the Nepal-China border. Reuters reported at least 1,367 deaths and more than 5,000 people missing in Nepal as of Sept. 9.
Delivering aid across the broken routes
The army’s fleet consists of four Chinese-donated DJI FlyCart 100 drones, making approximately 10–16 aid deliveries daily. The drones carry loads of up to 60 kilograms, or 132 pounds, over routes of roughly three to four kilometers, according to Reuters.
“We’ve been operating back and forth early in the morning,” Milan Pandey of drone operator Airlift Technology told Reuters, describing the pressure to keep supplies moving.
The deliveries begin with finding out what people need. In one Devighat village, a drone carrying a loudspeaker approached residents and asked questions about their supplies. “Do you have water? Raise your hand,” it announced, according to The Kathmandu Post.
Operators also asked about food and medicine. Residents could provide contact details by writing on a placard or in the mud, allowing the team to assess requests and arrange deliveries. The approach offered a way to communicate across the river when ordinary access had disappeared.
At another delivery point, a drone placed supplies on the roof of a four-story school building. The ward chairman was notified and collected the cargo for distribution. Pandey said his team had transported at least 1.5 tonnes of emergency supplies over three days, according to the Post’s reporting. The aircraft also recovered seven bodies from an otherwise difficult-to-reach location in Devighat under security supervision.
The technology has limits. Operators cited weather, range and payload restrictions, even as they described its value where conventional transport was impossible.
Search missions have exposed further obstacles. Drone pilot Manish Maharjan used loudspeakers and music to draw responses from stranded people, helping rescuers locate some survivors. Inside flooded hydropower tunnels, however, mud and debris blocked the aircraft’s path, AP reported on Sept. 1.
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