Nepal Bhotekoshi floods: families hold symbolic rites as 4,216 stay missing

As Nepal's flood toll climbed and thousands stayed missing, some families began symbolic last rites for untraced relatives. The grieving scenes underscore the disaster's scale as fresh rain threatens more flooding and cross-border rescue efforts continue.Stock photo used for illustrationNepal's flash flood disaster has deepened, with the death toll from the Bhotekoshi River floods rising to 1,252 and 4,216 people still missing on Thursday, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority. With no word on many of the missing for eight days, some families have begun performing symbolic funeral rites for relatives they fear may never be found.The floods, triggered by an ice-rock avalanche near the Nepal-Tibet border on August 26, devastated towns and villages in northern and central Nepal. As rescue teams continued searches on the ninth day, authorities warned of more flooding because of fresh rain upstream, Nepal's foreign minister thanked other countries and the international community for their support, and officials also worked to bring back Nepalese nationals stranded in Tibet.In Paharebesi village of Rasuwa district, residents have started preparing funeral rites for missing relatives after receiving no information about them for eight days, Onlinekhabar reported on Thursday. In flood-hit areas, families have been using effigies made of kusha grass to perform the last rites of relatives who remain untraced, The Kathmandu Post reported. Families said they were turning to symbolic funerals because there was little hope of recovering all the missing and because identifying bodies had become increasingly difficult.According to the disaster authority, 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. It said 127 bodies were recovered from Rasuwa district, 69 from Gorkha, 60 from Dhading and 38 from Tanahu. On the Chinese side, the death toll in the flash flood that struck Gyirong county in Tibet near the Nepal border rose to 21, with 541 others still missing as of Wednesday. Saraswati Bishta, a technician at the Flood Forecasting Division of the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology, said continued rainfall in the upstream areas of the Bhotekoshi River on Thursday could raise water levels in the Bhotekoshi and Trishuli rivers, as well as smaller rivers and rivulets flowing through Rasuwa and Nuwakot districts. “The people residing in the surrounding areas and downstream of the river are urged to remain vigilant,” she said.Bishta said there was a middle-level risk of flash floods in rivers in several districts, mainly in the hilly region, including Taplejung, Panchthar, Terhathum, Dhankuta, Sankhuwasabha, Okhaldhunga, Udaypur, Chitwan, Gorkha, Tanahu, Lamjung, Manang, Mustang, Myagdi, Kaski, Syangja, Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur. She added that rivers in mountain regions including Kalikot, Humla, Jumla, Dailekh, Darchula and Baitadi were also swelling, creating some flash flood risk. Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal on Thursday described the floods as a “Himalayan Tsunami” and thanked neighbouring countries and the international community for their support and solidarity. His remarks came days after he told a private television channel that China, the US and India were the world's three largest greenhouse gas emitters and had a “historical responsibility to compensate vulnerable nations like Nepal”. On Thursday, while expressing gratitude to neighbouring countries, friendly nations and the international community, he said, “Nepal will continue close cooperation and collaboration with the international community in this regard.”Even as international and domestic assistance continued to arrive, schoolchildren across Nepal were donating part of their snack money or pocket money to the Prime Minister's Relief Fund for those affected by the floods. Joint rescue teams led by the Nepal Army continued search and rescue work on Thursday. The Kathmandu Post reported that the floods had changed the landscape of the valleys of Rasuwa and Nuwakot so sharply that helicopter pilots were relying on their own discipline and judgement to navigate the steep terrain because riverbanks and familiar landmarks had disappeared.Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lok Bahadur Chhetri said around 100 Nepalese nationals were missing in Tibet after the floods. He said around 3,000 Nepalese nationals who had entered Tibet for pilgrimage and business were stranded there, and more than 2,500 had safely returned to Nepal through the Hilsa and Tatopani border points, with some also returning by air. There are still around 1,500 Nepalese nationals stranded at the Kerung border point, and officials from the two countries are holding consultations on how to evacuate them safely to Nepal, he said.In a related development, Gao Rong, deputy director of China's National Climate Centre, warned that glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau were likely to become more unstable, increasing the risk of collapses and related disasters like last week's flood at the Tibet-Nepal border. “Over the past 60 years, the glacier area on the Tibetan Plateau has shrunk by around 24 per cent, with around 7,000 small glaciers disappearing completely,” Gao was quoted as saying by the South China Morning Post. “Looking ahead, the structural stability of glaciers across the Tibetan Plateau will decline further. Glacial disasters are likely to become more frequent and could amplify in destruction and reach through cascading effects,” he said.With the death toll rising, thousands still untraced, more rain threatening fragile river systems and rescue teams still searching, Nepal's flood crisis remains severe, while families, aid workers and officials continue to deal with the scale of the disaster at home and across the border in Tibet.With PTI Inputs- EndsPublished By: India Today Web Desk Published On: Sep 3, 2026 18:10 IST