See India's Rescue Operations in Quake-Devastated Nepal

In remote mountain villages near the epicenter of Saturday’s massive earthquake in Nepal, receiving outside help has become a matter of life or death.

The Himalayan nation is reeling from the magnitude 7.8 earthquake that struck 50 miles outside the capital, Kathmandu, and as of Monday afternoon had left at least 4,000 people dead. The country’s worst quake in 81 years has severely damaged Nepal’s already fragile infrastructure and aftershocks sent thousands into the streets.

Get The Brief. Sign up to receive the top stories you need to know right now.

Please enter a valid email address.

* The request timed out and you did not successfully sign up. Please attempt to sign up again.

Sign Up Now

An unexpected error has occurred with your sign up. Please try again later.

Check here if you would like to receive subscription offers and other promotions via email from TIME group companies.

You can unsubscribe at any time. By signing up you are agreeing to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you!

For your security, we've sent a confirmation email to the address you entered. Click the link to confirm your subscription and begin receiving our newsletters. If you don't get the confirmation within 10 minutes, please check your spam folder.

Countries around the world have pledged millions in assistance and some are already on the ground helping with rescue efforts and dispersal of aid. Altaf Qadri, an Associated Press photographer, is shadowing India’s Air Force as it brings relief to survivors.

Qadri was supposed to cover the arrival of evacuated Indian nationals by the Air Force in New Delhi, but while on base, he met with other journalists who were lobbying officials to fly them into Nepal. With all commercial flights from New Delhi to Kathmandu canceled, he said, there was no way to fly there without their help.

He called his editors, who told him to board an Antonov An-32 military transport aircraft that was carrying supplies and stretchers to Kathmandu via Allahabad, in India’s northeast. After a failed attempt on Sunday, they landed in Nepal on Monday morning.

The photographer was then handed authorization to follow the relief mission aboard a Mil Mi-17 helicopter to Trishuli Bazar, a town that is two hours north of Kathmandu by road. “A few small landslides have blocked the road leading to this place,” he tells TIME. “Many of the houses in the hills [have] collapsed, and the injured are in a bad situation.”

The flight time was about half an hour. “As soon as we approached the village to land, people started gathering around the helicopter,” he says. “There were local volunteers in green T-shirts also in the crowd, which made a ring around helicopter to stop people [from coming] near the rotors.”

The Indian soldiers, joined by Nepalese troops, unloaded rice bags and other supplies before evacuating nine injured survivors to Kathmandu, where he captured the heart-wrenching image of a Nepalese mother trying to catch up with an Indian soldier. “[He] was rushing a wounded and unconscious child to a waiting ambulance at the Kathmandu airport,” Qadir says.

It’s a scene that is likely to unfold over and over again as the country digs out.

Mikko Takkunen, who edited this photo essay, is an Associate Photo Editor at TIME. Follow him on Twitter @photojournalism.

Read next: How Facebook Is Helping Emergency Responders in Nepal

Listen to the most important stories of the day.

Subscribe to TIME

Contact us at letters@time.com.