The death toll from the devastating Nepal-Tibet flash floods has surged to 1252. According to the data released by Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA), 4216 people are still missing.
The authority said 355 bodies have been recovered from Chitawan district, 218 from Nawalparasi East, 208 from Nawalparasi West, including 18 recovered from India and handed over to Nawalparasi West, and 177 from Nuwakot. Similarly, 127 bodies were recovered from Rasuwa district, 69 from Gorkha, 60 from Dhading and 38 from Tahanu.
On the Chinese side, the death toll in the flash flood that struck Gyirong county in Tibet near the Nepal border has increased to 21, with 541 others still missing as of yesterday. As per the media reports, in flood-hit areas, families have begun using effigies made of kusha grass to perform the final rites of relatives who remain untraced, amid diminishing hopes of finding them alive. It reported that families were turning to symbolic funerals as there was little hope of recovering all the missing and because identifying bodies had become increasingly difficult.
As the upstream areas of the Bhotekoshi River are continuously receiving rainfall today, there is the possibility of rising water levels in the Bhotekoshi and Trishuli rivers as well as small rivers and rivulets flowing through Rasuwa and Nuwakot districts. The flash floods, triggered by an ice-rock avalanche near the Nepal-Tibet border on 26th of last month, devastated towns and villages in northern and central Nepal, leaving a trail of destruction.
