Nicknamed the “Roof of the World” because it stretches across the Himalayan mountains, Nepal suffers from poor and winding roads, shoddy buildings and endemic poverty in many of its districts. Some roads have reportedly been blocked by falling rocks, hampering search and rescue and relief efforts.
The two mountain districts of Jajarkot and West Rukum have suffered the most severe damage, with 95 killed in Jajarkot and 37 in West Rukum, said Nepal Army spokesman Brig. Gen. Krishna Prasad Bhandari. Hundreds have been injured.
“The search and rescue team of Nepal Army have reached a few places,” Bhandari said. “Roads are difficult, so it may take time to reach some places immediately.”
Narendra Gautam, assistant sub-inspector at Jajarkot Police station, told The Washington Post that there is no mobile cell network and that electricity is cut off in the affected areas.
“It is difficult to establish contact,” he said, adding that it takes a six-hour drive or two days’ walk to reach some quake-hit areas.
Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, commonly known as Prachanda, has mobilized all of the country’s security agencies and left Kathmandu by helicopter early Saturday to visit the region, according to the Himalayan Times.
Narendra Modi, the Indian prime minister, said on social media that India was “ready to extend all possible assistance.”
Poised on the seismically active Himalayas, where the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates meet, Nepal has a history of devastating earthquakes reaching back centuries.
Almost 9,000 people were killed in a pair of earthquakes in 2015 that struck 50 miles outside of densely populated Kathmandu. Entire villages were leveled, hundreds of thousands of Nepali people were made homeless, and reconstruction totaling $6 billion is still ongoing today.
Experts have warned that aside from geology, Nepal has been particularly vulnerable to earthquakes due to the substandard quality of its buildings.
Shih reported from New Delhi.
