‘The Search Was Over’: Family Identifies Son Lost in Nepal Floods

For four agonising days, Ayush Khadka’s family searched across Nepal for signs that the 21-year-old civil servant had survived the floods in Rasuwa district. They did not know that authorities had already recovered a body believed to be his on the day of the disaster.

Ayush had spoken with relatives the night before the flood. His social media account appeared online the next morning, giving the family a small reason to hope. As news of destruction spread on Aug. 26, relatives began looking for him, but they received little information despite repeatedly sharing his name, workplace and last known location in Timure.

The search was complicated by the distance between the family home in Salyan, Kathmandu, Nuwakot, Chitwan and the flood-hit border area. Roads to Timure had been destroyed, while private helicopters had been requisitioned for rescue operations. Ayush’s uncle Ganesh waited near the Nepali Army’s Maithali Barrack in Nuwakot, a coordination point for rescue and recovery efforts.

His aunt, Laxmi Thapa, searched in Chitwan, where bodies swept downstream were being recovered. On Aug. 27, she visited a temporary holding centre displaying photographs of recovered bodies on a television screen. One image caught her attention. “I was about 70% sure it was him,” she said.

Relatives compared the photograph with details they knew: a mole on the left side of the chin, his beard and a black religious protection thread, or buti, normally worn on his left arm. They withheld the image from Ayush’s distressed mother while they continued trying to establish his identity. The floods killed at least 939 people and left about 4,000 missing.

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I was about 70% sure it was him.