Nepal Floods: 13 Bodies Drift Into UP's Gandak River In Four Days As Death Toll Reaches 788

Four more bodies were recovered from the Gandak river in Uttar Pradesh's Kushinagar district after they apparently drifted into Indian territory from Nepal amid the devastating floods in the neighbouring country, officials said on Sunday. A total of 13 bodies have been recovered in the district over the past four days, with four recovered on Sunday alone, they said.

On Sunday, an SDRF team recovered the bodies of two women and two men near Bhediyari Thokar No. 3 of the Chhitauni embankment.
The SDRF team was conducting surveillance on the river near Bhediyari Thokar No. 3 when they spotted four bodies in the water. The team entered the river and retrieved the bodies. On Saturday, SDRF surveillance teams had spotted and recovered three bodies floating in the river.

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Officials in the neighbouring district of Nepal have been informed about the recovered bodies. SHO of Khadda police station, Sandeep Kumar Singh, said that the police sent all four bodies to the mortuary after completing the necessary formalities.

A total of 13 bodies have been recovered at Bhediyari over the past four days, the SHO said. As the mortuary in Kushinagar is full, the remaining bodies have been sent to Gorakhpur. So far, none of the bodies have been identified, he said. On Sunday, the death toll from flash floods in Nepal rose to 788 with more bodies being recovered, even as more than 2,500 people are still missing.

Bodies were recovered from eight affected districts as rescuers raced against time to search for those missing and rescue those stranded on the fifth day since the disaster.An ice-rock avalanche following a glacial collapse near the Nepal-Tibet border sent a torrent of water, mud and debris downstream, wiping out towns and villages, damaging crucial infrastructure and washing away hydropower stations through northern and central Nepal on August 26.

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Nepal's National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA) said the death toll has surged to 788. The Bhotekoshi river, which flows south from the Himalayan border region, carried the floodwaters downstream, creating havoc on August 26.

On Saturday, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said that more than 275 Indians and 128 persons of Indian origin remained missing or non-contactable in Nepal. On Sunday, the MEA on its X handle shared a list of 149 people who were rescued.

(Note: Except for the headline, this article has not been edited by The Daily Jagran and has been published through a syndicated feed. Source - PTI)