A city in Nepal has received far more bodies than its morgues can accommodate.
Bharatpur, the administrative center of Chitwan district, is located downstream from the areas devastated by severe flooding that claimed hundreds of lives this week, with many more individuals still missing. The district has emerged as the primary site for collecting human remains, whether carried away by the initial surge of floodwaters or that have since drifted to the banks of the Bhotekoshi River.
By Friday afternoon, the remains of approximately 220 people had been carried down to the district, according to Nepal’s disaster management authority. However, the morgues at hospitals throughout Chitwan can accommodate only about three dozen bodies, stated Rameshwor Poudel, the district’s police chief, during a phone interview.
On Saturday, authorities in Chitwan announced their decision to bury the unidentified remains due to advanced decomposition and the associated public health risks.
The town had been utilizing a government building that Nepali authorities had converted into a temporary mortuary capable of holding around 150 bodies, Mr. Poudel said on Friday, while efforts were underway to secure dry ice for preservation purposes.
“It has no chilling facilities,” he remarked regarding the hall. “It only has air-conditioners.”
At least two other districts in Nepal have reported comparable challenges in managing the storage of such a large number of remains.
The catastrophic flooding has severely strained government resources in Nepal, a nation where hospitals and infrastructure already operate with limited capacity. Even Bharatpur, an important transportation hub connecting much of Nepal to the road network leading to the capital, Kathmandu, has faced significant resource constraints.
Mr. Poudel noted that dozens of bodies had been recovered from the riverbank in fragmented conditions, complicating identification efforts. Prior to burial, authorities will collect DNA samples to enable families to claim any remains that may be identified in the future, according to Chitwan’s district administration.
Before the decision to proceed with burials, Mr. Poudel explained that police personnel were cleaning the remains and photographing them. When a body was identifiable, the photographs were displayed outside the hall, allowing individuals searching for missing relatives an opportunity to view them.
As of Friday afternoon, he reported that two bodies had been successfully identified and released to their families.
One of the identified victims was Kabir Lal Chaudhary, 23, who had been employed by a hydropower company more than 100 miles upstream when the flood swept him away.
Mr. Chaudhary’s brother, Sugrib Tharu, stated that he had waited for two hours at the temporary morgue in Bharatpur before the authorities released his brother’s remains to him.
“The body is decaying,” Mr. Tharu said by phone, as he traveled home in an ambulance. “If there had been a chilling facility, it would have been in a better condition.”
Mujib Mashal contributed reporting.
