Whereabouts of 49 people remain unknown in Nepal after floods — Kathmandu Post
In Nepal, the whereabouts of 49 people from the Patarasi rural municipality in Jumla district have not been established following the floods in Bhotekoshi on August 26. Among them are 15 young men from Lamri village who had gone to Rasuwa district for work, Kathmandu Post reports.
The families of these people say they have little information about the search efforts and criticize the response of local authorities. Dal Bahadur, the father of 19-year-old Santosh Budha, said that after learning of his son's disappearance, he flew to Kathmandu and then went to Trishuli to search for him. According to him, the military refused to take him by helicopter to the flood area, so he returned home after ten days of unsuccessful searches.
Work before going abroad
Many residents of Lamri were temporarily working in Rasuwa, planning to later leave the country. The village has 115 households, while young people from more than 20 families are already working outside Nepal.
In particular, brothers Lal Singh Bohara and Ganesh Bohara received visas to Malaysia and were awaiting departure after Dashain. Before that, they worked as day laborers at the 216 MW Upper Trishuli-1 hydropower project in Haku, Rasuwa district. During the floods, the brothers were in Tunnel No. 3, and no news of them has been received since.
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Lal Singh's wife, Chandra Maya, has a 21-month-old daughter and is six months pregnant. The family borrowed money from a cooperative and relatives for her treatment, and the brothers planned to go abroad, including to repay these debts.
Assistance and identification
According to the district administration, the whereabouts of 63 people in Jumla district have not been established after the floods: 49 from Patarasi, nine from Guthichaur, four from Chandannath, and one from Sinja. Tej Prakash Prasai, head of the district administration, said that at the first stage each affected family was provided with 41,000 Nepalese rupees, and a relief fund is also being formed.
Blood samples for DNA testing were collected from relatives of all 49 people whose whereabouts have not been established in the villages of Lamri, Tirkhu, Upper Lorpa, Lower Lorpa, Bata and Yapna. They are planned to be used to identify bodies found after the floods.
