Today marks the 6th memorial day of the 2015 Gorkha Earthquake. The quake with its epicentre on Barpark in the Gorkha district had jolted the country at 11:56 am on this day six years ago. Over 9,000 persons lost their lives while more than 22,000 people were injured in the quake that measured 7.6 on the Richter scale while over 900,000 personal houses were damaged in the quake. Although 32 districts in the country were affected by the quake, mostly 14 of them were the hardest hit ones such as Gorkha, Dhading, Nuwakot, Rasuwa, Sindhupalchowk, Dolakha, Ramechhap, Kathmandu, Lalitpur among others. Most casualties were recorded in Sindupalchowk district. The quake had incurred damages to 7,553 schools, 920 cultural heritages, 1,197 health institutions, 415 government office building and 194 buildings belonging to the security agencies. Similarly, the damage was also incurred on the 762-kilometre of road and more than 1,000 drinking water’s structures.  The earthquake triggered an avalanche on Mount Everest, killing 22, making 25 April 2015 the deadliest day on the mountain in history. The earthquake triggered another huge avalanche in the Langtang valley, where 250 people were reported missing. Hundreds of thousands of Nepalese were made homeless with entire villages flattened, across many districts of the country. Centuries-old buildings were destroyed at UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the Kathmandu Valley, including some at the Kathmandu Durbar Square, the Patan Durbar Square, the Bhaktapur Durbar Square, the Changu Narayan Temple, the Boudhanath stupa and the Swayambhunath stupa.

It was the worst natural disaster to strike Nepal since the 1934 earthquake popularly known as “Nabbe Saal ko Maha Bhukampa”