NEPAL FLOOD DEATH TOLL RISES TO 1,222, NEARLY 4,900 STILL MISSING
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Agency report
The death toll from last week’s devastating flash floods in Nepal has risen to 1,222, while 4,875 people remain missing as rescuers continue searching through debris and isolated communities a week after the disaster.
According to The Hindu, citing Nepal Police and the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority, bodies have been recovered across eight districts, with Chitawan recording the highest number of deaths at 348.
Nawalparasi East recorded 218 deaths, followed by Nawalparasi West with 208. Nuwakot has reported 155 deaths, while 127 bodies have been recovered in Rasuwa, 69 in Gorkha, 60 in Dhading and 38 in Tanahu.
The scale of the disaster has complicated efforts to locate missing people, including 583 foreigners. Thousands remain unaccounted for in areas where roads, bridges and communication networks were swept away by floodwaters.
A joint security operation involving the Nepal Army and other security agencies has so far rescued 11,993 people by helicopter and land routes, while about 21,314 security personnel have been deployed for search and rescue operations.
The humanitarian crisis was highlighted on Wednesday in Bidur, where survivors were forced to use a temporary cable crossing over the swollen Trishuli River after floodwaters destroyed roads and bridges.
The Nepal Army installed the roughly 250-metre cable, which residents and soldiers have been using to transport people across the river, including those seeking medical treatment, as well as medicines, food and other essential supplies.
The disaster has also extended across the Nepal-China border. In Tibet’s Gyirong county, where flooding occurred near the Nepal border, 21 people have died, while 541 remain missing, according to Chinese authorities cited by The Hindu.
China reopened the highway leading to the Gyirong border crossing on Wednesday after floodwaters destroyed sections of the route, allowing heavy rescue equipment to reach the disaster zone.
Reuters reported that search teams equipped with life-detection devices and sniffer dogs were subsequently deployed in the area.
India has also intensified its response, with a fifth aircraft arriving in Nepal carrying an 11-member rescue team, specialised equipment and 5.5 tonnes of essential medicines, according to India’s Ministry of External Affairs.
The disaster has meanwhile renewed scrutiny of development and environmental practices across the Himalayan region.
Environmentalist Sunita Narain said the scale of the flooding was linked to decades of treating rivers and mountains as though they could be continually re-engineered, particularly through extensive hydropower development.
The recovery operation continues as authorities grapple with widespread destruction of transport links and the large number of people still missing, leaving the final human cost of the disaster uncertain.
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