Nepal flood victims put in temporary graves as families protest rites

Nepal authorities have begun temporarily burying unidentified flood victims in Chitwan as bodies overwhelm local facilities. The move has triggered anger over dignity and Hindu funeral rites even as officials cite health and forensic pressures.Stock photo used for illustrationAuthorities in Nepal have begun placing unidentified flood victims in temporary graves in Chitwan district after devastating flash floods and mudslides killed at least 800 people and left more than 3,000 missing across Nepal and Tibet. The move, taken as forensic teams struggle with the number of bodies recovered, has sparked criticism from families and public figures who say Hindu funeral traditions are being overlooked.Officials said the burials were a temporary step driven by health concerns, limited morgue space and the fast decomposition of bodies recovered from floodwaters. They said DNA samples, photographs and other identifying details were being preserved so families could later claim the bodies and carry out funeral rites.The scale of the disaster was visible in Chitwan, where around 250 bodies were waiting to be identified after being swept hundreds of kilometres downstream by the Bhotekoshi River from the flood-hit area. Officials said about 100 victims were temporarily buried on Saturday, while another 50 bodies were having DNA samples taken ahead of likely burial on Sunday.Anil Thapa, a police inspector coordinating the handling of the bodies, said authorities were collecting DNA samples, photographing distinguishing facial features and recording other identifying details before assigning each body a reference number. He said many of the bodies had remained in floodwaters for about four days and had already begun decomposing by the time they were recovered. Across the region, homes, vehicles and farm tractors remained partly buried in mud. Officials said limited forensic infrastructure and inadequate morgue capacity in the district had added to the pressure of managing the large number of bodies. High humidity and intense heat accelerated decomposition, while health experts warned that leaving the remains exposed could raise the risk of disease.Relief work also faced fresh hurdles on Sunday after new landslides shut the main highway linking Kathmandu and Chitwan, a day after it had partly reopened. The closure complicated the movement of bodies and relief supplies. Criticism of the burials grew as survivors dealt with the aftermath. Some residents said the dead had been made to wait days for their last rites and had been denied dignity in death, while families still searching for missing relatives and some public figures questioned whether the authorities had acted too quickly. The issue carries particular weight in Nepal, where Hindu tradition calls for cremation, usually on a riverbank and in the presence of close family.Ruby Chaudhary, who has two missing relatives, said the burials should not go ahead without the consent of families. "The dead deserve to be treated with dignity," she said. "Our tradition is to cremate them on the riverbank, surrounded by their immediate family." Former prime minister Baburam Bhattarai said it was not appropriate to dispose of unidentified bodies before search and rescue operations were complete and without wider consultation with families of the missing. He said that if morgues were inadequate, authorities could have used emergency resources to set up temporary morgues or secure cold storage.Officials defended the decision, saying the graves were not intended to be permanent. "People are worried that this could be a permanent burial, but it is only temporary management," Thapa said. "If someone is able to verify the identity later using the available information, they can take back the body and perform the appropriate funeral rites." Nepal Foreign Secretary Amrit Bahadur Rai said the temporary burial of unidentified bodies was being carried out in line with internationally accepted disaster-management protocols, including those of the International Committee of the Red Cross. "Families can match records later, and will be allowed to exhume (the remains later) for necessary rituals," Rai said at a press briefing in Kathmandu.As Nepal continued to grapple with the floods and landslides, officials said the temporary burials were aimed at managing an overwhelming humanitarian crisis, while families and critics insisted that identification and funeral rites must remain central to the response.With PTI Inputs- EndsPublished By: India Today Web Desk Published On: Aug 31, 2026 09:02 IST