Security personnel prepare unidentified bodies of flood victims for mass burial at the Gokarna forest reserve in Kathmandu on September 1, 2026. (Photo by MANAN VATSYAYANA / AFP)
The death toll from devastating floods along the China-Nepal border has risen to at least 1,114 in Nepal, with another 3,916 people still missing, the country’s disaster management authority said on Wednesday, a week after the disaster.
Chinese state media reported that 16 people were killed and 546 remained missing in Tibet, bringing the combined toll from the August 26 disaster to 1,130 deaths and 4,462 missing persons.
The floods followed the collapse of a Himalayan glacier along the China-Nepal border, triggering a tsunami-like surge of freezing water and debris that swept through communities in the region.
In Nepal, families of those still missing have begun holding symbolic funeral rituals after days of searching hospitals, shelters and morgues for their loved ones.
On Tuesday, 12-year-old Rozel Shrestha lit a small effigy made of straw and barley at Kathmandu’s Pashupati temple, symbolising his missing father, 37-year-old Krishna Shrestha.
Krishna was in the worst-hit Rasuwa district when the floods struck on August 26 and has not been seen since.
“We searched everywhere, went to morgues across the country, but could not find his body,” his brother, Jeevan Shrestha, told AFP.
“So the family sat down… and decided we have to do our traditional rituals to liberate his soul.”
Families Turn to Traditional Rituals
Another family performed a similar ceremony for truck driver Chandra Bahadur Newar, 35, who was in the border town of Timure on his way to China when the disaster occurred.
Newar last spoke to his family the night before the floods.
“He had called after dinner as he always did,” his wife, Dolma Newar Tamang, said. “He had said he would be back in not more than a week.”
When her husband failed to make his usual morning call, Tamang initially assumed he was busy. But after seeing reports of the disaster, she repeatedly tried to reach him without success.
The family launched an extensive search, with some relatives travelling north towards the disaster zone while others searched downstream, where hundreds of bodies had been carried by the floodwaters.
Tamang also visited several hospitals and morgues in Kathmandu, where the family lives, in an effort to find her husband.
She said she eventually came to terms with the possibility that he might never return.
“We had to do this to set his soul free, so that he is at peace and happy wherever he is,” she said, alongside her grieving son.
Search Efforts Strain Morgue Capacity
At a cremation site in Kathmandu, another family prepared to bury Mahesh Dangol, 30, after postponing his funeral in the hope of receiving news about his relatives.
Dangol was among the few people rescued from the town of Betrawati, which was badly affected by the floods. He later died from a lung infection at a Kathmandu hospital.
His family had delayed the cremation because his parents, wife and daughter remained missing after being swept away by the floodwaters.
However, hospital authorities informed the family on Tuesday that they could no longer keep his body because of limited space, according to Dangol’s cousin, Sunil Dangol.
Authorities have recovered more than 1,000 bodies, but only a small number have been identified, putting further pressure on Nepal’s already limited morgue capacity.
“It is unlikely anybody else will be found, so we have decided to go ahead with the rituals for the entire family,” Sunil said.
The disaster has left thousands of families facing uncertainty, as rescue and recovery teams continue efforts to locate those missing and identify recovered bodies.
