Nepal shifts Bhotekoshi flood response to recovery as officials count 5,285 missing

The Nepal government has formally moved its Bhotekoshi flood response from active search and rescue into what officials call "search and recovery," more than a month after the August 26 disaster struck Rasuwa district and swept bodies downstream into at least seven more districts, Nuwakot, Dhading, Chitwan, Gorkha, Tanahun, Nawalparasi East and Nawalparasi West, according to Nepal Police figures reported by myRepublica.

The decision came from the 37th meeting of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Executive Committee, held at the Ministry of Home Affairs in Singha Durbar and chaired by Home Minister Sudhan Gurung, Nepal Press reported. For families still waiting for news of a missing relative, the work now centres on finding and naming bodies. The NDRRMA chief says the government also wants to declare the missing legally dead so families can claim relief, the Kathmandu Post reported.

Dharma Raj Upreti, chief of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority, or NDRRMA, Nepal's national disaster agency, told Radio Nepal at the same meeting that crews are still searching two tunnel sites for missing people. "In case of rescue, we have entered a new phase of work on rehabilitation and recovery," he said, according to Radio Nepal's English service.

Some 5,285 people are still listed as missing, Nepal Press reported. Nepal Police put the figure at 4,718 the same day, myRepublica reported. The two government counts have not been reconciled. Of 1,454 bodies and human remains recovered so far, only 112 have been identified, with 585 male, 336 female and 533 unidentified partial remains, Nepal Press reported. Of the bodies and remains found, 1,292 have already been buried under government procedure and 112 identified bodies handed to families. That leaves about 50 of the 1,454 recovered bodies and remains not covered by the burial and handover figures. The reports do not say where they are.

DNA testing is now running on 3,685 samples split between two laboratories, 1,957 at the Nepal Police Central Forensic Laboratory in Samakhushi and 1,728 at the National Forensic Laboratory, Radio Nepal reported. Teams of DNA experts from India, China, South Korea, the United States and Singapore are helping with the work, Nepal Press reported.

The Prime Minister's Natural Disaster Rescue Fund and the separate Prime Minister's Relief Fund together hold Rs 16.15 billion, roughly $121 million, according to the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, as reported by Nepal Press and English Nepalnews. The Rescue Fund alone holds about Rs 12.05 billion in nine commercial banks plus about $2.71 million in two foreign currency accounts, DC Nepal and Radio Nepal reported. The government has disbursed Rs 1 billion, about $7.5 million, from the Prime Minister's funds to flood victims, Nepalnews reported.

The plan to declare the missing dead

A day before this meeting, NDRRMA chief Upreti told the Kathmandu Post in an interview published September 29 that the government is drafting a legal change to declare the roughly 5,285 people still missing as deceased, so their families can receive the same state relief as confirmed deaths. Under the existing Social Security Guidelines, a family gets Rs 200,000, about $1,500, when one member dies, plus Rs 100,000, about $750, for each additional death in the same family. Upreti said a draft had gone to the Law Ministry and that public feedback closed the day he spoke. Radio Nepal reported that the committee reviewed the specific legal obstacle driving the proposal: Clause 40 of the National Civil Code requires 12 continuous years of disappearance before a person can be declared dead, and Rule 17 of the National Identity Card and Registration Regulations bars local registrars from recording such a death without official certification. The draft amendment is meant to clear that hurdle.

What we still do not know

Has the Cabinet or Parliament actually passed the amendment letting the missing be declared dead, and when would it take effect?

How was the Rs 1 billion already paid out distributed, by household, by district or by confirmed death, and how many pending claims remain?

Will search teams, personnel or helicopters at the two remaining tunnel sites be scaled down now that the broader operation has shifted to recovery, and from what date?