Nepal Flash Floods Kill Over 1,200, Families Hold Symbolic Funerals For 4,000 Missing
· World · NDTV
Flash floods triggered by a glacier collapse along Nepal's Trishuli and Bhote Kosi rivers have killed more than 1,200 people and left over 4,000 missing, with families now performing symbolic Hindu cremations of straw effigies at Kathmandu's Pashupati Nath temple to seek closure. More than 150 unidentified bodies are held at Kathmandu's Tribhuvan hospital awaiting family identification, while over 350 bodies recovered in Chitwan are being temporarily buried in a nearby forest to prevent infection, with DNA samples collected for matching that could take weeks. In Bharatpur, the Narayani river downstream of Trishuli and Bhote Kosi is washing up bodies daily, and drones are being used to spot remains flowing downstream or caught on mud banks. Along the Trishuli in Nuwakot, one of the worst-hit districts, priests place straw effigies representing the missing and conduct full cremation rituals so families can offer a final farewell without recovered bodies.
Why it matters
The disaster has created an unprecedented identification and mourning crisis in Nepal, with thousands of families unable to perform traditional last rites and authorities racing to match DNA before further decay — a challenge that could reshape how Himalayan nations prepare for glacier-driven flood events in the future.
Read the original report — NDTV
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