Shortage of helicopters hinders Nepal rescue mission

The government is currently using 13 helicopters, including seven private ones, while the Indian Air Force is helping with 14helicopters, to cover the country's mountainous terrain.

"We do not have enough helicopters to deliver relief materials and conduct rescue operations simultaneously," Interior Ministry spokesman Laxmi Dhakal said.

On Sunday, the US military brought four Osprey aircraft, which can perform vertical landings, Dhakal said. China also brought three helicopters on Monday morning.

"But these are not enough. We need at least double or three times more what we have right now," Dhakal said.

The problem worsened when the Nepal army's MI-17 helicopter was grounded Monday in a remote region due to technical malfunction, military spokesman Jagadish Chandra Pokharel said.

It was the army's only MI-17. The other helicopters in its fleet are smaller vehicles.

"It did not crash, and all the crew members are safe and accounted for. We have dispatched a team to study the problem," he said.

The hardest-hit areas are remote villages in the northern region with limited or no access by roads which were also blocked by landslides as a result of the quake.

Officials said as many as 95 per cent of houses were completely destroyed in some villages, forcing people to live in the fields.

Dhakal said food and emergency supplies were being air-dropped in some places because there was no place to land on the steep mountainsides.

The government also placed a ban on large aircraft delivering aid from abroad, due to possible damage to the Kathmandu runway.

"Any aircraft weighing more than 169 tons is forbidden. We are sending them back," Dhakal said.

Nepal has only one international airport with a single runway. The airport and the runway were undamaged during the earthquake, but the airport officials say the traffic is higher than it can handle since the earthquake.

The official death toll climbed to over 7,200, according to Nepal Emergency Operation Center, but is expected to be rise higher as more victims are recorded in remote regions.

The Tourism Board said 57 foreigners were confirmed killed and 52 injured in the quake, and 109 tourists were still missing.

In the Langtang region, where a whole village is believed to have been buried under a landslide, rescuers discovered 52 bodies, including seven foreigners.

"One of them is French and one is Indian, we are trying to identify the other five," Gautam Rimal, a senior government official in the district, said.

"The operation is ongoing. There is a good chance that more than 200people, including many foreigners, are buried there."

The Interior Ministry has also decided to send back all foreign teams who have come for search and rescue mission.

"We have decided that we can handle the rest of the search and rescue operation. We will ask them formally to go back, with much thanks, as soon as the cabinet approves our decision," Dhakal said.

He said 4,050 people from 34 different countries were involved in rescue operations. He also said 129 dogs were being used.