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Nine days after devastating flash floods swept through parts of Nepal, families of those still missing have begun performing Shradh rituals, accepting that their loved ones may no longer be alive.
In Bogti Tar village of Betrawati, a family performed mourning and Shradh rituals for two brothers, Kedar Prasad Acharya, 65, and Madhusudan Acharya, 60, who went missing after floods struck the area on August 26. The brothers had gone towards the forest near the riverbank at around 8 am to cut grass but never returned home. Despite nine days of searching, their bodies have not been recovered, and the family has received no information about their whereabouts. Speaking to ANI, one of the brothers of the missing men said the family had been unable to trace them despite searching extensively. "We couldn't find him. He had gone to the fields to cut grass. Nothing has been found among the bodies recovered by the government," he said. Asked whether the family had accepted that the two brothers had died, he said, "Yes, passed away... We have accepted it." He added that two members of the family were swept away in the flood and confirmed that both were his biological brothers. "Today is the ninth day. We are performing the head-shaving and purification rituals," he said. Another family member said they had waited and searched for nine days but were unable to find the bodies. "We waited and searched for nine days everywhere possible, but couldn't find anything. Since they weren't found, we realised they won't be found anymore," he said. "By now, the bodies must have decomposed or washed away; no one knows where. So according to our Hindu traditions and rituals, we started performing the mourning rites from the ninth day," he added. Acharya family members performed the Shradh and mourning rituals according to Hindu traditions. According to an official update by Nepal's National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA), the death toll from the flash floods has reached 1,252, while around 4,216 people remain missing as of September 3 noon. The crisis began after a catastrophic flash flood struck the Tibet-Nepal border on August 26, sending a powerful surge of water, sediment and boulders through the Bhotekoshi and Trishuli river systems and causing widespread destruction. As the search for missing people continues, families like the Acharyas are being forced to perform mourning rituals without recovering the bodies of their loved ones. (ANI)
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