THE death toll from devastating floods and landslides in Nepal and China has risen to 1,280, with 5,624 people still missing as increasingly difficult search-and-rescue operations enter their second week.
Nepal accounts for the overwhelming majority of the casualties, with 1,259 deaths and 5,083 people still unaccounted for, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority.
The missing in Nepal include 583 foreign nationals, while more than 21,400 security personnel have been deployed for search-and-rescue operations.
The scale of the disaster has left families confronting the grim possibility that the remains of their loved ones may never be recovered.
In Rasuwa, one of the worst-hit districts, families have begun holding symbolic funerals for relatives who remain missing, making effigies from kaas-kush, a sacred grass, and conducting final rites intended to “release the souls” of those who disappeared.
Dozens of the effigies were cremated during a mass funeral ceremony on Wednesday at Pashupati Aryaghat temple in Kathmandu, on the banks of the Bagmati River, the Kathmandu Post reported.
In Chitwan, another badly affected district, authorities have buried unidentified bodies after collecting DNA samples, as the number of recovered remains has overwhelmed capacity for individual identification and storage.
The disaster has also deprived many survivors of traditional mourning rituals, with floodwaters sweeping away homes and family members across several districts.
Families who fled to Kathmandu for shelter after losing everything have also struggled to find suitable public facilities to conduct funeral and mourning ceremonies.
Rescue teams comprising soldiers, police and other personnel continued operations yesterday, but widespread damage to roads, electricity supplies and communications has hampered efforts across the affected areas.
Authorities are also working to deliver relief supplies and maintain hygiene in shelters to reduce the risk of infectious disease outbreaks.
In neighbouring China, 21 people have died and 541 remain missing, including 261 foreign nationals, according to local authorities.
The disaster began on Aug 26 when a glacier on Mount Langtang Lirung in Nepal broke away at an altitude of about 5,200 metres, triggering an avalanche of ice and rock that developed into a massive debris flow and swept through valleys along the border.
Floodwaters and landslides subsequently devastated Nepal’s Rasuwa, Nuwakot, Dhading and Kavre districts, as well as the Kathmandu Valley.
The destruction also reached southwestern China, where the Gyirong border crossing in Xizang Autonomous Region, also known as Tibet, was buried.
Meanwhile, Malaysia’s Foreign Ministry, Wisma Putra, has mounted a coordinated diplomatic, consular and field response following the Aug 26 disaster in Rasuwa.
Wisma Putra has deployed a consular team to Kathmandu to coordinate with Nepalese authorities, support search-and-rescue efforts and inspect hospitals, mortuaries and temporary burial sites.
Working with the Royal Malaysia Police, the ministry has also facilitated DNA sample collection from next of kin at police contingent headquarters nationwide to speed up victim identification.
Consular officials and police are collecting ante-mortem information, including personal items, clothing details, mobile phone identifiers and distinguishing physical features, for comparison with recovered remains.
Wisma Putra’s Crisis Monitoring Centre is also continuing efforts to track and establish contact with 55 Malaysians who remain uncontactable in Nepal and 36 others in neighbouring China’s Xizang Autonomous Region along the pilgrimage route.
Malaysian officials are coordinating with Nepalese disaster management agencies to monitor mass burials in remote areas and ensure documentation is maintained for possible future exhumations and formal identification. - September 4, 2026
