Rajendra Dawadi, the 47-year-old principal of Tribhuvan Trishuli Secondary School in Nuwakot, Nepal, saved 1,643 students from catastrophic flash floods. Upon receiving an urgent phone call warning at 9:20 AM that upstream river levels were surging, Dawadi sounded the school bell, turned approaching buses back, and evacuated the children up a nearby hill under a Bodhi tree. Minutes later, raging floodwaters swept away the entire three-story school building.
Around 9:20 AM on Wednesday, Rajendra Dawadi, the principal and English teacher at Tribhuvan Trishuli Secondary School in Nuwakot district, received a frantic phone call from a friend in an upstream village. The friend warned that sudden ice-and-rock avalanches from Langtang Lirung had triggered severe flooding, obliterating nearby structures along the riverbank. Shortly after, a local parent arrived at the school to report that water levels in the Trishuli River were rising at an unprecedented rate.
How Rajendra Dawadi Saved Students:
Rajendra Dawadi immediately sounded the emergency school bell, instructing teachers to evacuate all 900 students who were already on campus out of their classrooms. He quickly contacted incoming school bus drivers, directing them to turn back before reaching the lower valley floor. With panic mounting, Dawadi guided the children uphill to safety beneath a Bodhi tree located on higher ground. Within minutes of completing the evacuation, a massive wall of mud and water swept through the valley, completely destroying the three-story concrete school building.
While all 1,643 students survived without major physical injuries, two school staff members tragically lost their lives during the disaster. Social studies teacher Santos Pariyar (32) was washed away after returning to his rented room near the riverbank, while school janitor Sultan Lama was killed when he went back inside the building to close the doors during the initial evacuation. Parents and local officials praised Dawadi’s rapid decision-making for averting a far greater tragedy.
