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Nepal families hold cremations without bodies for flood victims still missing

From Al Jazeera · () English

Translated from English and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

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  • Relatives in Nepal are performing symbolic cremation rites for loved ones who remain missing after flash floods killed more than 1,200 people and left nearly 5,000 unaccounted for.
  • Families use effigies made from sacred kusha grass because authorities and relatives have been unable to recover or identify many bodies.
  • The disaster has overwhelmed Nepal’s authorities, while families submit DNA samples in hopes of identifying remains later.

At Kathmandu’s Pashupatinath Temple, Sujan Achhami carried his father’s “body” to the Bagmati River and placed it on the stone used for funeral rituals. A priest read mantras as he washed the figure, offered a clay lamp and laid down flowers. But the body was an effigy made from sacred kusha grass.

Dinesh Achhami has been missing for nine days. His family has searched for the 41-year-old driver, who was in Nepal’s flood-hit Rasuwa district when torrents swept down from Tibet. “We looked everywhere because we had no clear idea where he was hit,” his uncle Raju Achhami said.

We searched for them everywhere. We couldn’t find them.

· Khim Bahadur Gharti MagarHe described the search for relatives who disappeared during the floods.

The flash floods that struck northern and central Nepal on August 26 killed more than 1,200 people and left almost 5,000 missing. As hopes of finding survivors or recovering bodies fade, relatives are performing symbolic last rites without remains. Khim Bahadur Gharti Magar said his uncle Tham Bahadur Pun, 71, a former British Army soldier, and his aunt Chausara Pun, 64, disappeared while on pilgrimage in northern Nepal. “We searched for them everywhere,” he said. “We couldn’t find them.”

We looked everywhere because we had no clear idea where he was hit.

· Raju AchhamiHe spoke about efforts to find his missing nephew, Dinesh Achhami.

Magar said the pilgrimage group traveled in 17 buses. Searchers found four bodies from the group, prompting the family to proceed with cremation rites. Sher Bahadur Pun, a senior government health official and the missing man’s son-in-law, said relatives had given police DNA samples in case identities could be established later.

Other families face the same uncertainty. Maniram Tharu survived the floods while working at the Upper Trishuli 1 hydropower project, but his brother Dipendra and sister-in-law Phool Maya Tamang have been missing since the disaster. “We don’t know where to go, what to do. We are worried,” he said. Nepal’s authorities have struggled to store and identify recovered bodies. Police spokesman Abi Narayan Kafle said preserving bodies until identification would be the proper procedure, but the authorities are not in a position to do so.

We don’t know where to go, what to do. We are worried. They have small children who are safe because they are living with other family members.

· Maniram TharuHe described the uncertainty surrounding his missing brother and sister-in-law.
About this summary

Originally published by Al Jazeera in English. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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