KATHMANDU, Nepal | Nepal has begun the mass burial of unidentified victims recovered from last week’s devastating flash floods, as authorities struggle to cope with hundreds of decomposing bodies while families continue searching for relatives among more than 3,000 people still missing.
Authorities in Chitwan district buried 96 unidentified bodies at Devghat forest on Saturday and planned to bury more than 100 additional victims as recovery operations continued, Reuters reported. The decision was driven by the rapid decomposition of bodies and limited morgue and forensic capacity following the disaster.
Officials said DNA samples and other identifying information are being collected before burial so that victims can potentially be identified later. Forensic teams from India and China are assisting Nepal with the identification process as hospitals and temporary morgues struggle to handle the number of recovered bodies.
The burials come as the scale of the Himalayan disaster continues to grow. Authorities in Nepal and China have reported about 750 deaths and more than 3,000 people missing following the August 26 flash floods and mudslides triggered by an ice-rock avalanche and glacier collapse near the Nepal-China border. In Nepal alone, 734 people had been confirmed dead and 2,498 remained missing, while more than 7,500 people had been rescued, according to the latest figures cited by Reuters.
For families arriving in Chitwan, the burial grounds have become another place to search for information about loved ones who disappeared in the disaster. Many bodies were recovered from rivers and flood debris days after the catastrophe, making visual identification increasingly difficult.
The disaster struck after a portion of a glacier in Nepal’s Rasuwa district collapsed, sending an enormous surge of water, ice, rock and sediment into river systems. Experts reviewing satellite imagery told Reuters that the glacier collapse appears to have triggered the destructive event, although the precise causes of the collapse remain under investigation.
The catastrophe has also highlighted Nepal’s vulnerability to growing glacier-related hazards. The United Nations reported in 2023 that Nepal had lost nearly one-third of its ice in just over three decades, while its glaciers had been melting significantly faster in the preceding decade. Scientists have warned that warming temperatures can contribute to instability in glaciers and high-altitude slopes, although climate change cannot yet be identified as the sole cause of this particular collapse.
Rescue teams meanwhile continue to search for survivors and recover bodies despite unstable terrain, rising rivers and the threat of additional flooding. Authorities are racing against time to identify the dead, locate those still missing and provide families with answers amid one of Nepal’s most devastating recent disasters.
Si Venus L Peñaflor ay naging editor-in-chief ng Newsworld, isang lokal na pahayagan ng Laguna. Publisher din siya ng Daystar Gazette at Tutubi News Magazine. Siya ay isa ring pintor at doll face designer ng Ninay Dolls, ang unang Manikang Pilipino. Kasali siya sa DesignCrowd sa rank na #305 sa 640,000 graphic designers sa buong daigdig. Kasama din siya sa unang Local TV Broadcast sa Laguna na Beyond Manila. Aktibong kasapi siya ng San Pablo Jaycees Senate bilang isang JCI Senator.
- Venus L Peñaflor
- Venus L Peñaflor
- Venus L Peñaflor
- Venus L Peñaflor
