Nepal begins burials as flood death toll rises to 752
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Health workers carrying a body into a mortuary in Nepal’s Chitwan district on Aug 30.
PHOTO: AFP
- Nepal has started burying flood victims temporarily after taking DNA samples, as traditional cremations are delayed and bodies need to be preserved for families.
- The death toll has risen to 752 with 2,502 people missing, including 589 foreigners; China reports 16 dead and 546 missing in Tibet.
- Nepal urgently requests over a thousand freezer units and DNA testing kits to safely store bodies and prevent health risks from decomposition.
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Kathmandu – Nepal said on Aug 30 it had begun burying some of the hundreds of bodies recovered after devastating floods, after taking DNA samples and marking them so families can later retrieve them.
The dead are traditionally cremated on funeral pyres in Hindu-majority Nepal, so the burials are viewed as long-term storage until families can retrieve them.
Foreign Secretary Amrit Bahadur Rai told reporters that all those buried were carefully recorded, but also appealed for international support, saying Nepal needed “more than a thousand” freezer units to store bodies.
The announcement of the burials came as Nepal’s disaster ministry raised its toll again on Aug 30 to 752 bodies recovered and 2,502 people missing.
That list includes 589 foreigners unaccounted for.
Chinese state media earlier confirmed 16 dead in Tibet and 546 people missing following the Aug 26 disaster, taking the overall toll to 768 dead and 3,048 unaccounted for.
“Following standard and accepted protocols, such as those of ICRC (Red Cross), the mortal remains of the dead, especially those not recognisable... have been temporarily buried,” Rai told reporters.
“Medical teams took DNA samples from every victim prior to the burial so that families can match-reference later, and would be allowed to exhume for necessary rituals.”
Nepal has called for freezer storage units and DNA testing kits as it is overwhelmed with the number of bodies to store safely.
“We have requested different countries for freezers; we will need more than a thousand,” Rai added.
“Many dead bodies have been collected, and they have started decomposing. To preserve public health, we had to bury the decomposing bodies,” he added. AFP
