Nepal flood toll rises to 469, over 1,400 missing across Nepal and China as rescue effort widens

New Delhi: Nepal’s death toll from Wednesday’s flash flood on the Bhotekoshi river has risen to 469, Nepal Police said, while 977 people remain missing as search and rescue operations continue across Rasuwa, Nuwakot, Dhading and other affected districts. Nepal Police said 1,545 people have been rescued so far, with thousands of security personnel deployed in the affected areas. 

Chitwan has recorded the highest number of deaths among the affected districts, with 178 bodies recovered, followed by 110 in Nawalparasi East, 44 in Gorkha, 37 in Nuwakot, 33 in Dhading, 28 in Tanahun, 27 in Nawalparasi West and 12 in Rasuwa, as reported. Authorities have rescued 644 people from Rasuwa, 898 from Nuwakot and three from Dhading, while 28 Nepal Police personnel are also still missing.

Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority has put the number of missing people at 977, a figure that includes residents, security personnel and foreign nationals. The authority said 517 foreign nationals and 127 Nepali citizens living abroad were among those reported missing in its earlier status report, as reported.

Eighty-four Indian nationals have been rescued from flood-affected areas in Nepal, while 290 remain uncontactable, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Thursday. The rescued include 63 workers of the Trishuli I hydropower project and 21 people from Tamil Nadu, and India has now sent a combined 47.5 tonnes of humanitarian assistance and disaster relief material to Nepal in two consignments, as reported by RNA.

Among those missing are 80 members of a group linked to the Isha Foundation, its founder, Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, said. The group was returning from the Kailash Mansarovar pilgrimage and had reached the immigration facility at Gyirong, on the Tibet side of the border, shortly before the flood struck; Vasudev said it comprised 34 men and 46 women from several countries, including the US, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom. 

The disaster has also left a large number of tourists and trekkers unaccounted for. The Nepal Tourism Board said 667 tourists and travellers, including 127 Nepalis, were still missing in flood-affected areas, with officials checking the whereabouts of people who were in or travelling through Rasuwa, Nuwakot and Dhading when the floods struck. 

Foreign nationals are also among those affected. The tourism board said 31 foreign nationals had been rescued, including one Indian, four South Koreans, two Americans, two Russians, two Italians, one Bulgarian and one Swiss national, with the nationalities of 18 other rescued people yet to be confirmed, as reported.

The scale of the disaster extends across the Nepal-China border. According to reports, at least 472 people have died across the two countries, including three deaths reported on the Chinese side, while more than 1,400 people remain missing, with the combined figures including large numbers of foreign nationals caught in the affected border region. 

Search operations are being conducted by the Nepali Army, Nepal Police and Armed Police Force, with helicopters being used to reach isolated areas and evacuate survivors. Nepal Police has deployed 4,348 personnel for rescue operations, while the Nepali Army has separately said it rescued dozens of people through helicopter evacuations and ground operations in Rasuwa, as reported.

The floods have severely damaged transport links, complicating access to affected communities. Nepal’s government has dispatched 25 million Nepalese rupees (NPR 25 million) in relief funds, including NPR 10 million each for Rasuwa and Nuwakot and NPR 5 million for Dhading, while the United States has announced $500,000 in assistance and the World Health Organization has sent emergency medical supplies.

The cause and full scale of the sudden flooding remain under investigation. Earlier reporting said an avalanche on the Nepal side had blocked the Lhende tributary before the flood surged downstream into the Bhotekoshi, while automatic monitoring stations in the upper river were themselves swept away, cutting off the early warning they would normally have provided.