Flood victims' bodies overwhelm morgues along Nepal-India river corridor

People look at photos displayed outside a govt hospital in Kathmandu on Friday to help relatives identify the flood victims (Picture credit: AP)

Morgues on the 200km Bhote Koshi-Trishuli-Narayani river trail in central and southern Nepal are at capacity and overflowing as bodies swept away by Wednesday’s flash flood surfaced downstream, forcing authorities to move remains between districts and convert govt buildings and community halls into temporary mortuaries. By Friday morning, seven unidentified bodies were found in Gandak river in Maharajganj and Kushinagar districts of UP. Nepal has deployed hundreds of security personnel along the riverbanks from Rasuwa to Chitwan on the Indian border and at other possible recovery locations. Nepal home ministry also coordinated with Rasuwa, Nuwakot, Dhading, Gorkha, Chitwan and Nawalparasi on where bodies could be preserved and identified as district facilities ran out of space. “Wherever bodies have been found and need to be managed, coordination is underway on how to manage them,” home ministry joint spokesperson Rama Acharya Subedi said. “There is talk of speeding up the management in any case.” Chitwan, on Narayani river along the Indian border, emerged as the biggest pressure point, with 221 bodies recovered in the district by Friday, the highest number anywhere along the flood corridor.

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Existing hospital morgues across Chitwan could together hold only around 30-50 bodies, forcing authorities to convert an unused govt building in Bharatpur into a temporary body-management and identification centre with capacity for around 250. Officials arranged airconditioners and dry ice to slow decomposition, while Devghat electric crematorium was identified as another option if the temporary facility also ran out of space. Chitwan chief district officer Ganesh Aryal said managing the remains had become increasingly difficult as searches continued. “Most of the bodies found were in a state of decomposition, which adds to the challenge of how to manage the bodies,” he said. The pressure spread across districts as more remains were recovered downstream. Dhading and Gorkha sent bodies to Kathmandu and Pokhara, while Nawalparasi East shifted remains to Pokhara, Palpa, Butwal and Bhairahawa and converted Ankur Community Forest hall in Kawasoti into temporary cold storage. By Friday, 102 bodies recovered in Dhading, Gorkha, Tanahun and Nawalparasi East had been moved to Pokhara for forensic examination.

Path of destruction

Kaski chief district officer Kuman Singh Gurung said morgues in Pokhara could together hold only around 88 bodies. “By the numbers, we are already above capacity,” he said. Pokhara Academy of Health Sciences officials said remains kept between 2 and 6 Celsius could generally be preserved for only 10 days to two weeks. Longer storage required sub-zero facilities that were not available there. The river trail eventually extended across Nepal’s border with India. In Maharajganj, a UP district adjoining Nepal, Sashastra Seema Bal personnel used a motorboat to retrieve bodies of three women and a man. Another three bodies were recovered along Chhitauni embankment of Gandak in neighbouring Kushinagar.