Nepal flood and mudslide: Death toll rises to 1,127 as thousands remain missing, India expands rescue mission

New Delhi: The death toll from Nepal’s catastrophic flash floods rose to 1,127 on Wednesday as search teams recovered more bodies along the swollen Trishuli river system and in downstream districts. Nepal Police said 4,858 people remained missing a week after a collapsing mass of glacier, rock and ice unleashed one of the deadliest Himalayan disasters in recent history.

The latest police figures surpassed an earlier count of 1,118 deaths and more than 3,900 missing reported on Wednesday morning, illustrating how rapidly the toll is changing as isolated areas become accessible. Nine bodies recovered after being swept across the border into India have been incorporated into Nepal’s updated count, although their nationalities have not been established.

The disaster began at about 8.37am on August 26, 2026, when a huge section of glacier and underlying rock collapsed in the Langtang region near Nepal’s border with Tibet. The impact generated seismic waves initially mistaken for an earthquake before a torrent of meltwater, mud, ice and boulders surged through the Lhende Khola and into the Bhotekoshi and Trishuli rivers.

Floodwaters rose with extraordinary speed, destroying settlements, roads, bridges, border facilities and hydropower installations from Rasuwa southwards through Nuwakot, Dhading, Chitwan and the Nawalparasi districts. The Nepal Police breakdown included 348 bodies recovered in Chitwan, 217 in Nawalparasi East, 190 in Nawalparasi West, 155 in Nuwakot, 66 in Gorkha, 59 in Dhading, 45 in Rasuwa and 38 in Tanahun.

Nepal has mobilized more than 21,000 personnel from its army, police and armed police for evacuation, relief distribution, body recovery and searches across the affected river corridor. Helicopters, earthmovers, search dogs, drones and temporary bridges are being used, but landslides, broken roads, unstable slopes and deep deposits of mud continue to obstruct access to remote communities.

Official rescue totals have varied as agencies reconcile local evacuations with operations conducted by the security forces, with the government reporting more than 11,800 people brought to safety by Tuesday. The latest Nepal Police operational tally recorded 6,541 rescues, while electricity and communications have been restored in some accessible areas.

The most urgent operation is concentrated on 12 damaged hydropower projects in Rasuwa and Nuwakot, from which about 900 workers remain unaccounted for and roughly 500 are feared trapped inside tunnels. The projects have a combined capacity of about 670MW, and their damaged underground passages are filled with water, rocks and mud that one volunteer described as being packed into the tunnels like paste.

Rescuers have been forced to clear narrow entrances before drones, personnel and life-detection equipment can be moved deeper underground, while damaged roads have restricted the deployment of heavy machinery. Some workers reportedly telephoned for help in the first hours after the flood, but there has been no confirmed subsequent contact and hopes of finding survivors are diminishing.

Identification of the dead has become another major challenge, with postmortem and legal procedures completed for 1,113 bodies but only 95 handed over to relatives after identification. Nepal Police has published information on 911 unidentified victims, while DNA samples, photographs, fingerprints and other distinguishing details are being preserved before bodies are placed in temporary graves.

Foreign tourists, hydropower workers and pilgrims travelling towards Mount Kailash in Tibet account for a substantial part of the missing. Nepal’s foreign ministry said 324 foreign nationals had been rescued and about 590 citizens of 39 countries remained unaccounted for, although several people initially listed as missing have since contacted their governments or families.

Indians rescued as New Delhi steps up assistance

India’s Ministry of External Affairs said 163 Indian nationals had been rescued by 7.30pm on September 1, an increase of five over the previous day, while 151 Indians had left China that day. New Delhi had earlier placed the number of Indians missing or out of contact at more than 275, but its latest bulletin did not provide a revised missing-person count or a consolidated figure for confirmed Indian fatalities.

A 24-member Indian tunnel-rescue contingent has been working with the Nepali Army at hydropower sites in Chilime and Langtang, advancing through confined spaces and swamp-like tunnel floors with improvised floats. A separate 19-member forensic team has begun DNA analysis with Nepali laboratories in Kathmandu, while another 11-member rescue team with specialized equipment left India on the fifth relief aircraft on Wednesday.

India delivered 68.5 tonnes of assistance on its first four military flights, including temporary shelters, blankets, sleeping bags, tarpaulins, hygiene kits, generators, dewatering pumps, medicines, food packets and water-purification tablets. The fifth aircraft carried another 5.5 tonnes of essential medicines, taking the combined airlifted assistance to about 74 tonnes.

New Delhi has also dispatched 16 trucks carrying equipment for a 230-foot single-lane modular steel bridge and offered additional Bailey bridges and technical teams to restore severed road links. Nepal has sought assistance for dozens of temporary bridges as washed-out crossings continue to isolate communities and delay the movement of rescue equipment.

The disaster has extended physically into India, where bodies carried downstream have been recovered from rivers in the Uttar Pradesh districts of Maharajganj and Kushinagar. Indian authorities are working with Nepal to identify the victims, while communities along rivers entering Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have been advised to monitor water levels and official warnings.

China has separately reported 16 deaths and 546 people missing in Tibet, where Gyirong Port and surrounding settlements suffered extensive destruction. Chinese teams have opened a temporary access road for heavy machinery and Beijing has sent drones, water-purification equipment, relief supplies and DNA specialists to assist Nepal.

Preliminary United Nations estimates indicate that the flood deposited about 2.2 million tonnes of debris, while the Red Cross believes approximately 93,000 people were directly affected. At least 41 bridges were swept away, schools and health facilities were destroyed, and substantial damage to Nepal’s hydropower network has disrupted an important part of the country’s electricity system.

The precise geological sequence is still being studied, but satellite analysis indicates that bedrock failed beneath a glacier, releasing an enormous mass of ice and rock and triggering the downstream flood. Scientists caution that attributing one collapse solely to climate change requires detailed study, although rising Himalayan temperatures are destabilizing glaciers and increasing the wider risk of glacial floods, landslides and avalanches.