Dearth of space in morgues as death toll continues to rise after Nepal-Tibet flash flood

POKHARA (Nepal): As the bodies of the victims swept away by the Bhote Koshi flood are being dumped downstream, hospitals are struggling to find places to store and identify them.

The Himalayan nation only has the capacity to store about 350 bodies in morgues nationwide, which has led to a shortage of space to store the bodies until the families identify and claim them. The remains of victims swept away by floods from Rasuwa and Nuwakparasi are being recovered in Nuwakot and downstream up to Chitwan, Tanahun, Nawalparasi and low-lying areas.

The district of Chitwan has already been filled with the bodies of victims swept downstream, which has prompted authorities to set up temporary facilities. Along with this, hospitals in Pokhara have also reported that their morgues are filling up after bodies began arriving from several districts.

कितना हृदयविदारक है लापता परिजनों की तलाश में शवगृह के बाहर लगी मृतकों की जानकारी पढ़ना… यहां अपनों का नाम न मिलना जितनी राहत देती होगी उतनी ही जिज्ञासा और आशंका भी बनाए रखती होगी… #Nepal pic.twitter.com/1NGktMFvhj

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“All of the bodies are being recovered from the river by deploying the police team. We first retrieve the bodies from the river, we take close-up photos of the bodies, if the body is not clear, then we first clean the bodies and then keep it in the body bag and tag it and bring it to this temporary body management location. Here we are maintaining the room temperature at zero degrees in the AC. We have been doing it because there is a problem in identifying the bodies of the victims. If some of the relatives of the missing persons would come to inquire, then we display the photos of the recovered bodies. If they identify the bodies of their missing relatives, then we will hand it over after completing the procedures”, Rameshwor Paudel, Superintendent of Nepal Police, said.

The authorities have now set up a temporary body storage centre in Bharatpur after hospitals struggled to cope with the number of bodies being recovered. An unused building of the Industrial Enterprise Development Institute on Vidhyut Road in Bharatpur Metropolitan City-10 will be converted into the temporary facility.

Nearly 200 bodies have been recovered along the Chitwan stretch of the Trishuli and Narayani rivers, from Phishling to Golaghat. Recoveries were continuing. The morgues at hospitals in Chitwan can collectively accommodate between 30 and 50 bodies at a time. With that capacity already under pressure, the temporary centre is expected to provide space for about 250 bodies.

Similar scenes are visible in Pokhara, which lies about 160 kilometres from Chitwan, where bodies have continued to be dumped in the aftermath of the flood. Bodies have been brought to Pokhara after authorities in several districts ran out of space. A total of 93 bodies have been transported to the city from Tanahun, Gorkha, Nawalparasi East and Dhading.

“The total capacity of the hospitals in (Kaski) is 88 and before the flooding we already had 5 bodies in the morgue beforehand. We have been further receiving bodies from Tanahun (9), from Nawalparasi East (27) and Dhading (20). In total, we have 47 bodies that have been arriving here,” Kuman Singh Gurung, Chief District Officer of Kaski, said.

The Pokhara Academy of Health Science can accommodate 72 bodies, Nepal Manipal Teaching Hospital eight, and Gandaki Medical College, Fishtail Hospital, Charak Memorial Hospital and Fewa City Hospital two each. More bodies are still being recovered, and the prolonged storage of unidentified remains could make the situation increasingly difficult.

Authorities are managing the bodies under the Unidentified and Unclaimed Bodies Management Guidelines, 2021, under which a committee headed by the district police chief is responsible for managing the remains.

“Unidentified and Unclaimed Bodies Management Guidelines, 2021 forms a committee headed by the district police chief that is responsible for managing the remains. We first photograph the bodies, take fingerprints, conduct post-mortems and collect DNA samples. Where facial identification is possible, photographs are made public to help families identify their relatives. If relatives cannot be located or the bodies identified, we cannot keep them indefinitely because fingerprints and DNA samples are collected beforehand. Later, on the basis of the guideline, in involvement of the local authorities, we manage the bodies in the particular place with the tags,” Nabin Karki, Chief of the Police for the Kaski District, said.

Police expect the number of unidentified bodies to increase as remains continue to arrive from different districts. The committee has therefore decided to coordinate with the central authorities and manage unidentified bodies within one to two weeks. (ANI)