Kathmandu, September 3
Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital is preparing to bury more bodies recovered from the Bhotekoshi flood in Gokarna on Thursday as authorities struggle to manage the growing number of unidentified victims.
The bodies are being temporarily buried as efforts continue to establish their identities.
According to the hospital’s Department of Forensic Medicine, 177 bodies have so far been brought to the hospital for management. Of these, post-mortems have been completed on 129 bodies. A total of 85 bodies have been sent for temporary burial, while 21 bodies have been identified and handed over to their families.
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Dr Gopal Chaudhary, head of the department, said many of the bodies were already in an advanced state of decomposition when they were recovered after a prolonged period.
“Some of the bodies have deteriorated to the point where even their faces cannot be recognised,” he said.
The condition of the bodies has made both identification and management increasingly difficult.
Authorities have now begun a scientific identification process for the unidentified bodies. DNA samples are being collected from the bodies at Teaching Hospital, while samples from possible relatives are being collected at the Nepal Police Hospital in Maharajgunj.
The bodies are being identified by matching their DNA with samples collected from close blood relatives.
The growing number of bodies has also placed considerable pressure on the hospital’s storage capacity. Teaching Hospital can accommodate around 150 bodies, but the number brought to the facility has exceeded that capacity.
The pressure has increased because decomposed bodies cannot be kept in open spaces and must be stored in the mortuary. With space running out, some bodies had previously been transferred to the cooling facility at Pashupati.
Bodies whose post-mortems have been completed but whose identities remain unknown are being sent to Gokarna for temporary burial after the necessary DNA samples have been collected and legal procedures completed.
