Kathmandu, Aug 31 (PTI) The death toll from the flash floods in Nepal rose to 903 on Monday, with bodies continuing to be recovered, while 4,247 people are still missing following the disaster, authorities said.
More than 10,000 people have been rescued so far, as rescuers struggle to reach those still stranded amid intermittent rain, swollen rivers and damaged roads and bridges.
The flash floods, believed to have been triggered by a collapse or avalanche of ice and rock near the Nepal-Tibet border, devastated towns and villages in northern and central Nepal on August 26. The Bhotekoshi River, which flows south from the Himalayan border region, carried the floodwaters downstream, sweeping away homes, vehicles, roads and bridges and damaging hydropower projects.
In Nepal, 272 bodies have so far been recovered in Chitwan district, 207 in Nawalparasi East, 151 in Nawalparasi West, 95 in Nuwakot, 62 in Gorkha, 55 in Dhading, 37 in Tanahu and 24 in Rasuwa, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA) said on Sunday.
The disaster also killed 16 people on the Chinese side, while nearly 550 people remain missing in Tibet, according to Chinese media reports.
Of the 4,247 people still missing in Nepal, around 590 are foreigners from 39 countries, including India, Nepal’s foreign ministry spokesperson Lok Bahadur Chhetri said on Monday. They also include 99 security personnel.
The 10,451 people rescued from Nepal’s flood-affected areas till Monday evening, includes locals and tourists from multiple countries, including India, the US, China, Russia, the UK, Spain, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Malta, Turkiye, Switzerland and Portugal, officials said.
Roughly one-third of those rescued were evacuated by air, officials said.
The floods also washed away the Bhotekoshi Corridor, Nepal’s main land trade link with China as well as the Rasuwagadhi border crossing connecting the two nations.
On Monday, authorities said a landslide briefly blocked the Budhi Gandaki River in Gorkha district before water flow resumed, while injured people rescued from flood-hit Rasuwa continued to receive treatment in Kathmandu.
In Nepal’s hospitals, which have been witnessing major crowds of people looking for their missing relatives, the focus is increasingly shifting towards identifying the dead. Photographs have been pasted outside hospital walls, where huge gatherings could be seen scanning them with attention.
Nepal’s Foreign Secretary Amrit Bahadur Rai said in a press briefing on Sunday that the mortal remains of victims who could not be identified, including those that were unrecognisable, amputated or decomposed due to prolonged exposure to water, had been buried following “standard and accepted protocols”.
He also said that an 18-member team of forensic experts from India specialising in DNA analysis is assisting their Nepalese counterparts.
Expert teams from India and China are also assisting in efforts to rescue workers and employees missing from hydropower sites in flood-affected areas, where many are believed to be trapped in tunnels. PTI SBP SCY ABD ABD
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