From one pilot to a country's drone ecosystem.
Adarsha Raj Bhusal, founder of GarudX, designs, builds and flies drones in Nepal for disaster response, line-stringing and film, where roads and signals end.
- Experience
- 12+ years with drones, 8 of them professional
- Education
- +2, CG Education Campion CollegeBSc (Hons) Computing, Islington College (London Metropolitan University)Mostly self-taught, with external courses along the way.
- Languages
- English, Nepali
- Born
- 2002, Nepal
Chapter 1
Gulmi
Before there was internet, there was a plastic bottle. In rural Gulmi he tied one to an RC car and used its lid for wheels. When his parents brought medicine back for their small hospital, the styrofoam packing became his first boat.
Chapter 2
Tamghas
In grade 5 he finally had proper internet. YouTube showed him that 3D modelling software existed, and for the first time he could see his ideas. His first CAD model was a UFO. He read about Arduino and ESP boards but had no way to get them.
Chapter 3
Butwal
In grade 7 he moved to Butwal, close to the Indian border, and the parts finally came within reach. His first airframe was PVC pipe and plywood. It took a few attempts. Around the age of 12, it flew.
Early builds, 2018–2019
12 rotors on six arms, 2018
School days
Aluminium X-frame, 2018
Foam flying wing, 2018
Fixed-wing, 2019
Over the rooftops
Chapter 4
Twelve rotors
He wanted to build something he had never seen: a 12-rotor drone, twelve motors on six arms, built to learn MAVLink and ArduPilot properly, shown at the Kathmandu Mini Maker Faire in 2018. He built fixed-wings before the fair and after it, then his first FPV drone and the feeling of flying from inside the machine. He went all in.
Chapter 5
FPV meets film
When FPV reached cinema, he began working with Sisan Baniya and Prajwal (Jholey), two of Nepal's top video makers, modifying drones for the shots they wanted and taking VFX work to fund his own R&D. That became 17+ films, 200+ ads and music videos, and specialist-pilot work in Dubai, China, India and Ladakh.
Chapter 6
Building a scene
Nepal had about five FPV pilots. Through races he helped grow a scene that now runs from hobby flying and racing to enterprise drones and specialised services. He founded the Nepal Drone Racing League, ran the FPV racing department at TechnoXian in India, and took a race to Muscat for Oman's Ministry of Sports.
Chapter 7
GarudX
He started it in 2018 as a social media page while he was still freelancing, and registered it as GarudX Multipurpose on 29 December 2024, built on his own equipment. Since then: SkyReaper for Nepal Police, the GX8 Pyro cinelifter, Hydra for line-stringing, 9+ in-house platforms, and a climb to about 6,200 m on Lobuche East to test propellers, motors and batteries in thin air.
Chapter 8
The night of the flood
August 2026. He was in Mustang when the flood hit. By night he had built a relay to carry video through a wet concrete tunnel; at 3 am he left for Nuwakot. His drone reached the first debris platform of the Upper Trishuli-1 tunnel before rockfall closed the way. Then GarudX led days of unpaid work: relief deliveries into Devighat, a line and ropeway at the Chilime tunnel that sped the rescue up, and internet, electricity and a ropeway reconnected for 150+ households at Devighat.
Chapter 9
Now
Swarms, GPS-denied navigation, autonomous flight and edge AI, all in progress. A country's drone ecosystem, built from one pilot.
Recognition
- World Bank Drone Ecosystem Acceleration Program (DEAP), run in Nepal as Elevate Nepal with Impact Hub Kathmandu
- NYEF Startup Award, first runner-up
- US-Nepal Startup Weekend Challenge, winner (Feb 2026)
- Film Development Board of Nepal: certified drone trainer
Curriculum vitae
Engineering, field operations and leadership in one page.