Nepal To Bury Unidentified Bodies; DNA Samples Taken For Later Identificaton

Nepal authorities have begun burying unidentified bodies of victims of this week’s devastating flash floods after morgues and temporary storage facilities ran out of space.

At least 675 bodies have been recovered since floods ripped through villages and towns on Wednesday morning. Chitwan, a southern district bordering India, has emerged as the worst-hit area in terms of recoveries, with 233 bodies found so far.

The sheer number of dead has overwhelmed local facilities.

Officials said hospitals could no longer preserve the remains, forcing authorities to move bodies into temporary cooling spaces. Even those arrangements soon became inadequate.

“As the number of dead bodies piled up, we used a house as a cooling centre where the bodies were kept," an official said.

“As the house also ran out of space, we had no alternative but to bury them," the official added.

Authorities have warned that continued decomposition and the strong odour from bodies being kept in makeshift facilities could increase the risk of infection.

DNA Collection For Later Identification

Before burial, officials are collecting DNA samples from every body and assigning each set of remains a unique identification number. Detailed records are also being created so families can trace and reclaim the bodies if a DNA match is established.

By Saturday afternoon, DNA profiling had been completed for more than 100 bodies, allowing authorities to move ahead with their burial.

The burial process itself is being tightly documented.

Officials are digging pits around 1.5 metres deep and leaving roughly 40 centimetres between individual bodies. The spacing is intended to make it possible to exhume one set of remains later without disturbing others.

Each body is being placed inside a numbered bag. Authorities are also installing concrete markers and signboards carrying the same identification number at the burial site.

The sites will be photographed, filmed and geo-tagged, creating a record of exactly where each unidentified victim has been buried.

For families still searching for missing relatives, the process will not end with burial.

Relatives will be able to submit DNA samples at hospitals across Nepal. Health officials will compare those samples with DNA already collected from the recovered bodies.

If a match is confirmed, police will use the victim’s identification number to locate the burial record and identify the exact grave.

The body can then be exhumed and handed over to the family.