Kathmandu, April 27 -- It was around 5pm on Sunday. A steady pre-monsoon downpour had flooded the ground at the Dasharath Stadium. Scattered belongings lay soaked in the rain. Faces in the crowd looked drained, uncertain, and defeated.

Among them sat 53-year-old Pakcha Tarim Kasai, drenched but unmoving. The rain did little to mask the exhaustion etched across his face. It was not just age. It was the hollow look of a man who had lost everything within hours.

When bulldozers moved into the riverside settlement in Thapathali on Saturday, Kasai did not just lose his shelter. In the chaos, he was separated from his wife.

He had reached the stadium that evening. Around 9pm, municipal officials began moving displaced families to temporary a...