A Tibetan rights organization has accused Chinese authorities of underreporting the true scale of last week’s catastrophic floods along the Nepal-Tibet border, arguing that the number of homes destroyed and people missing on the Tibetan side is far higher than Beijing has admitted.

The International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) said its sources on the ground indicate that approximately 300 homes were destroyed across four villages in Kyirong (Gyirong) County, on the Tibetan side of the border.

Tencho Gyatso, ICT’s president, said the destruction visible just across the frontier in Nepal points to a far larger disaster hidden from view on the Tibetan side.

“What is visible in Nepal exposes what is being concealed in Tibet. The little information that we can gather from the ground suggests the numbers affected were far higher than Chinese officials had reported.” Tencho Gyatso, President, International Campaign for Tibet

A wide gap in the official count

Chinese authorities have officially reported 16 deaths and 546 people missing in Tibet, including 261 foreign nationals from 23 countries. Across the border, the death toll in Nepal has climbed past 900, with more than 4,000 people still unaccounted for after a glacier collapse on 26 August triggered deadly mudslides and flooding that swept through border villages on both sides.

A wall of silence

Advocacy groups and Tibetan exiles point to a familiar pattern of information control in the region. Videos and posts showing the scale of destruction have reportedly been rapidly deleted from Chinese social media platforms. Independent access to the disaster zone remains restricted, and individuals accused of spreading “false information” about casualty figures have faced penalties. Chinese state media coverage has focused largely on rescue operations and official visits by government figures, rather than detailed accounts of local losses.

Beijing’s response

Chinese officials have rejected claims of a cover-up, insisting that their information releases have been transparent and timely. But independent verification remains difficult: foreign journalists and outside observers face significant restrictions in Tibet, a politically sensitive region that Beijing has kept largely closed to independent reporting for decades.

Timeline