Text settings Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only Learn more Minimize to nav Chinese-made drones are airlifting the bodies of flood victims and delivering food to survivors in the aftermath of devastating flash floods on the border of Nepal and China’s Tibetan region. Nepal’s army has been using four DJI FlyCart 100 drones donated from China to make 10 to 16 aid deliveries each day, according to Reuters. This comes after a partial glacier collapse in the Himalayan mountains unleashed a sudden surge of water, mud, and debris that swept through border crossings, valley communities, and hydropower projects on August 26. The DJI Flycart 100 Drones come with a 30-meter rope and winch system for picking up and dropping off heavy loads.
The website of Chinese drone company DJI describes the drones as being able to carry between 187 and 220 pounds, depending on the battery configuration. The four Chinese cargo drones being used by the Nepal army are currently hauling about 132 pounds of supplies per trip, Reuters reported. That heavy-lift capability has also allowed the drones to remove human bodies from some flood-stricken areas. The official death toll in Nepal had risen to 1,369 as of September 9, according to a situation report from the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority.
The Nepal government agency also reported that more than 5,000 people are still missing, including 587 foreign nationals. The same situation report also mentioned how the drones have helped to distribute 1,591 kilograms of food items across 31 flights. The United Nations is appealing for $20.5 million to help 43,000 people in the aftermath of the flood disaster in Nepal. Smaller drones have also proven useful in search-and-rescue efforts as Nepal has deployed more than 21,000 police and soldiers to look for survivors.
Search teams have occasionally found surviving workers trapped in hydropower tunnels after the floodwaters ripped through both operational hydropower plants and sites under construction. One drone pilot and filmmaker, Manish Maharjan, told AP News about flying small drones inside hydropower plant tunnels to help search for trapped workers but highlighted the challenges of flying drones through tunnels with many “bends, turns, or zigzags.” Maharjan also described finding some tunnels “filled with mud like toothpaste in a tube.” The drones carried microphone speakers that allowed rescuers to call out to potential survivors or play music, which helped locate survivors in a few cases, Maharjan said. The Nepal government’s September 9 update described 13,646 people as having been rescued so far. Chinese officials have reported 43 deaths on the Tibetan side of the border with more than 500 people still missing, according to NBC News.
US-China drone competition on Mount Everest The flood relief efforts represent just the latest example of Chinese cargo drones operating in Nepal. Since 2024, Sherpas assisting climbers at Mount Everest have been making regular use of Chinese drones—including the same DJI Flycart 100 and the smaller DJI Flycart 30—to deliver oxygen cylinders and other supplies to camps while ferrying out poop bags and other garbage, Al Jazeera reported. The Mount Everest drone flights have even become a focus of US-China tech competition. On May 1, a US team led by President Donald Trump’s special envoy for South Asia attempted to fly a US-made Freefly Alta X Gen 2 drone from the Mount Everest base camp in a challenge to DJI’s heavy-lift drone dominance in Nepal.
But that flight never happened because Nepal’s government denied the US team permission to fly. The government also canceled the drone flight permits for the Chinese DJI drones for a week before protests from Mount Everest expedition operators prompted the official go-ahead for flights to resume. The Nepal government’s decision to temporarily ground the Chinese drones, along with denying the US permission to fly, may have represented “an effort to maintain strategic neutrality” between China and the United States, retired Nepali army major general Binoj Basnyat told The Wall Street Journal. In any case, US drone companies may face some headwinds in winning over the mountaineering expeditions at Mount Everest.
Milan Pandey, cofounder of the Nepali drone company Airlift Technology, told The Wall Street Journal that the Chinese-made DJI drones can carry significantly more than the US-made Freefly drone at higher Mount Everest altitudes—the difference between carrying 100 pounds versus just 11 pounds. The Chinese drones are also cheaper than the US-made Freefly drone. However, Pandey also expressed interest in having his company test the Freefly drones in support of mountaineering expeditions. That test finally happened on the neighboring mountain of Ama Dablam in June.
In a post on July 26, the US embassy in Nepal described the drone flights ferrying oxygen cylinders and other equipment between the mountain’s base camp and another camp, but it did not specify how much weight the drones were able to carry. Jeremy Hsu Tech Reporter Jeremy Hsu Tech Reporter 14 Comments Comments Forum view Customize
