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As the death toll from Nepal's devastating flash floods climbed to 903, families of missing people gathered at Bidur, making rounds of help centres, checking lists of missing and deceased persons and waiting anxiously for information about their loved ones. Many broke down while recounting their last contact with those who remain unaccounted for.
Sunita Kayastha, who was searching for her husband Prakash Kayastha along with her children, broke down while recounting the incident. "My husband was in the car... while trying to save others, he got caught in it," she told ANI. She explained further, "There was another person in the car with him, a passenger. While he was trying to save that passenger, the car was swept away along with him. Since then, there's been no information; they're not in contact." Kayastha said her husband's phone had been switched off since the incident and appealed to authorities for assistance. "I hope the authorities will do something... my children are still young," she said. For Dev Prasad Ghosh from Ranchi, Jharkhand, the wait has been equally painful, as his younger brother has been missing for the last four to five days. "Some people were rescued a few days ago, and one of them told me that they had definitely left before the flood, but he couldn't climb up the hill. He is stuck somewhere in between, maybe in the mud, or he's injured," Ghosh said. He appealed for a ground search operation instead of relying solely on aerial rescue. "Our request to the Indian Army and Nepal Army is that we've been requesting everyone since yesterday to at least conduct a foot rescue in that area so he can be saved. Without a foot rescue, if they rescue by helicopter, he won't be visible if he's stuck inside a forest. A foot rescue is important there because he is stuck there. People are saying they ran uphill, but he didn't make it. They stood uphill and waited, but he didn't climb up. He is stuck somewhere," Ghosh said, adding that his brother's last WhatsApp status showed 8:37 am on Wednesday, with no contact since. Ghosh's sister-in-law also appealed to authorities to be allowed to join the search personally. "I saw yesterday some villagers went by helicopter to bring people from their village. So why can't we go?" she said, adding that she had shared the exact location with the Indian Army a day earlier but was unsure if rescuers had reached the spot. Ashraf Ali Khan, who travelled from Birtamod in Jhapa, said five members of his family, including his daughter and grandson, had been missing since the floods struck Trishuli Bazar six days ago. "No contact. It's been six days now," he said, adding that he still held onto hope. "I hope that if their house is still standing, my people might be there... They might have run away and hidden somewhere; that's also possible," Khan said. According to Nepal's National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA), the death toll rose to 903 on Monday, up from 788, while around 4,247 people remain missing and 10,451 have been rescued so far. Chitwan reported the highest number of casualties at 272, followed by Nawalparasi (East) with 207, Nawalparasi (West) with 151, Nuwakot with 95, Gorkha with 62, Dhading with 55, Tanahun with 37 and Rasuwa with 24. The missing include 25 Nepal Police personnel, 45 Nepal Army personnel, 13 Armed Police Force personnel, 15 Customs Office personnel and three Immigration Office personnel. Rasuwa has reported 865 missing persons and Nuwakot 1,548, according to District Emergency Operations Centre data, while 933 people remain missing from hydropower projects and 65 from Makwanpur. The number of missing foreign nationals stands at 592. The Nepal Army has carried out aerial rescues of 252 foreigners and 3,344 Nepali nationals, with 411 flights conducted so far, including seven on Monday. On August 30, 15 people from a hydropower site, including five Chinese and seven Indian nationals, were rescued. Relief operations have also been intensified, with supplies transported through 37 trucks, 35 Bolero vehicles and eight helicopter flights. Nearly 20,000 security personnel have been deployed, carrying out 8,730 rescues by ground forces, while aircrews have airlifted 3,081 people, including 236 foreigners, and rescued 279 individuals directly from a flooded hydropower tunnel in recent days. With morgues running out of space, authorities have begun burying unidentified bodies recovered from the Trishuli and Narayani riverbanks in a forest in Chitwan, following DNA sample collection. An official at the site said the process followed ICRC protocols, with each body assigned a unique identification code. "When placing each body, we will attach an indelible identification tag to a remaining limb, such as a hand or a foot," the official said. (ANI)
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