Kathmandu, September 1
Six men and seven women have been found dead in the Gandak River in Uttar Pradesh, with Indian authorities coordinating with Nepal over identification and repatriation.
Bodies believed to have been swept downstream from Nepal following the devastating Rasuwa floods continue to be recovered from the Gandak (Narayani) River in India.
Kushinagar district authorities in Uttar Pradesh said 13 unidentified bodies have so far been recovered from the river. Of them, six are men and seven are women.
Six of the bodies have been kept at the mortuary of Kushinagar Medical College, while the remaining seven were sent to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Gorakhpur after the mortuary ran out of space, according to the district administration.
Teams from the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) are continuing search and rescue operations along the Narayani River amid concerns that more bodies could be recovered.
Kushinagar’s acting district magistrate and chief development officer, Vandita Srivastava, said authorities were following the required legal procedures for the recovered bodies.
The Kushinagar district administration is also coordinating with the relevant authorities in Nepal. Information about the recovered bodies is being shared with Nepal through India’s Ministry of External Affairs, according to the administration.
The bodies will be handed over to Nepal after post-mortem examinations and other required legal procedures are completed. Nepal will then begin the process of identifying the bodies and handing them over to their families.
Meanwhile, the Kushinagar administration has established a control room to assist Nepali citizens travelling to India and those reaching the district in search of missing relatives following the floods.
