India, Sept. 20 -- For three weeks last month, Nepal was reduced to one functioning land route to China. It was not the historic Araniko Highway, nor was it the newly-minted Rasuwagadhi crossing, the corridor Kathmandu had spent a decade promoting as its ultimate escape from Indian economic hegemony. Both were collapsed, one swept away by floodwaters and the other shuttered under the imminent threat of landslides. What remained was Korala, a pass so high and remote that traders openly describe it not as an alternative, but as a desperate last resort. Nearly 1,400 people died and thousands are still missing in a catastrophic torrent of mud and rocks that destroyed the Nepal-China border on August 26, that caused this ruin. The devastating ...