In Nepal, families hold symbolic funerals for those missing after floods
In Nepal, families of people who went missing after devastating flash floods have held symbolic funeral rites. Nearly 4,000 people are still considered missing, while the death toll in the region has exceeded one thousand. This was reported by Channel NewsAsia.
Rites for the missing
At the Pashupati temple in Kathmandu, on the banks of the Bagmati River, 12-year-old Rosel Shrestha set fire to a small effigy made of straw and barley that symbolized his father. Krishna Shrestha, 37, was in Rasuwa district, which suffered the greatest destruction when floods struck on Wednesday, and has been missing ever since.
Jeevan Shrestha, the missing man's brother, told AFP that the family searched for him in shelters and morgues across the country but did not find his body. The family then decided to perform a traditional ritual to free his soul, according to their beliefs.
Searches in hospitals and along rivers
The family of 35-year-old truck driver Chandra Bahadur Newar did the same. During the disaster, he was in the border town of Timure on his way to China. Newar last spoke with his family on the evening before the floods and told his wife, Dolmi Newar Tamang, that he would return within no more than a week.
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Relatives searched for the man near the disaster area and downstream, where the water carried hundreds of bodies. His wife also repeatedly visited hospitals and morgues in Kathmandu. Eventually, the family performed the rite, acknowledging the possibility that Newar would not return.
Overcrowded morgues
In Kathmandu, the family of 30-year-old Mahesh Dangol was preparing for cremation after he was rescued from the nearly destroyed town of Betrawati. Two days later, he died in a hospital in the capital from a lung infection. His relatives delayed the funeral, hoping to find Dangol's parents, his wife and daughter, who were swept away by the flood.
According to his cousin Sunil Dangol, the hospital asked the family to take the body because of a lack of space. Authorities have recovered more than a thousand bodies, but only a small portion of them have been identified, placing additional strain on Nepal's limited morgue capacity.
