Kathmandu, Sep 1: Over 1000 people have now been confirmed dead following last week’s devastating floods in Nepal even as bodies swept away continue to pile up along riverbanks in different districts, on Tuesday.

The number of bodies recovered so far have reached 1003, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA) said in its latest update. The highest number of bodies — 321 — were recovered in southern Chitwan district, followed by 216 in Nawalparasi East.

According to the NDRRMA, as many as 3,916 people, including 583 foreign nationals, remain out of contact. Nepali Army, Armed Police Force and Nepal Police personnel, as well as other government employees, are among those reported missing.

As many as 639 people working at various hydropower projects along the Bhotekoshi and Trishuli river corridors have remained out of contact since last week’s disaster, according to the authority.

Government authorities said search, rescue and relief operations were continuing in the affected districts.

The authority said 279 people have been injured in the disaster. Details of the injured and casualties are being compiled as search and identification efforts continue.

A total of 21,314 security personnel have been mobilised for search, rescue and relief operations, according to the NDRRMA. The mobilised personnel include 9,199 from the Nepali Army, 7,912 from Nepal Police and 4,203 from the Armed Police Force.

The authority said unidentified dead bodies have been kept at 21 locations for identification and proper management.

According to the latest update, 11,884 people have been rescued so far. Search and rescue operations are continuing in the flood-affected areas, with security agencies using helicopters and other resources to reach stranded people.

Meanwhile, the Nepali Army said it was continuing search and rescue operations at various hydropower projects with the assistance of foreign experts. Joint rescue operations are underway at the Chilime Hydropower Project, Langtang Hydropower Project, Upper Trishuli-1 and Trishuli-3A, among others.

During the immediate rescue operations following the floods, 279 people were rescued alive from hydropower project areas, according to the Nepali Army.

They included two people from Rasuwagadhi, 33 from Upper Trishuli-1, 221 from Upper Trishuli-3A, two from Upper Trishuli-3B, nine from Mailung, four from Nuwakot Solar Power Project, three from Trishuli Hydropower Project and five from Devghat Hydropower Project.

Kathmandu, Aug 31: An Indian tunnel rescue team is continuing its search and rescue operations to save the lives of people trapped inside tunnels of different hydropower projects following the devastating floods in the Bhote Koshi River last week, the Indian Embassy said on Monday.

“The tunnel rescue team from India worked with the Nepali Army’s team to conduct search and rescue operations at hydropower tunnel sites in the Chilime and Langtang areas today,” the embassy said, adding that the team would continue search and rescue operations in close coordination with the Nepali Army.

According to the Independent Power Producers’ Association, Nepal (IPPAN), a representative association of private-sector power developers, a total of 897 people employed at 11 hydropower projects in the flood-affected districts of Rasuwa and Nuwakot have been out of contact.

According to Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA), seven Indian and 15 Chinese nationals who were trapped in hydropower projects were rescued on Sunday.

At the request of the Nepali government, Indian and Chinese tunnel technicians arrived in Nepal and have been engaged in rescue efforts to evacuate people trapped inside hydropower tunnels.

On Sunday, the Indian team was involved in rescue efforts at different hydropower projects, according to statements from Nepali government authorities and IPPAN.

The Secretariat of the Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation said that the Indian team that arrived to assist with the rescue operation conducted an initial aerial reconnaissance of the Chilime and Langtang areas by helicopter and plans to undertake further rescue operations as required.

Prime Minister Balendra Shah said in a Facebook post late Sunday evening that an Indian team conducted reconnaissance at the Chilime Hydropower Project (22MW) in Rasuwa in coordination with the Nepal Army and carried out rescue efforts after taking pumps and excavators to the site.

However, the rescue operation at the Chilime project on Sunday was halted after another flood swept away structures that had survived the previous flood in the dam area, according to IPPAN.

“At the Langtang Khola Hydropower Project in Rasuwa, the Nepal Army conducted search-and-rescue patrols,” the Prime Minister said. “An Indian team has also conducted reconnaissance in coordination with the Nepal Army and has begun additional work after bringing pumps and excavators to the site.”

New Delhi, Aug 29: Nepal’s devastating flash floods serve as a reminder of the urgent need for regional collaboration, where countries under the shadow of the mighty Himalayas need to adopt a diplomatic narrative that includes ecological security as an important part of relationships, exert reports.

Popular Nepali newspaper Kantipur Friday observed that it is time for Kathmandu to immediately start working on disaster diplomacy and on the agreement with Beijing on its “implementation modality” and “framework”.

Incidentally, China and Nepal had agreed to share cross-border real-time information on floods and landslides and flag potential risks of glacial lake outburst floods. However, no formal agreement has been signed yet to implement such a mechanism despite Nepal Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal having raised the issue during his China visit in May.

Such reports emphasised the need for sharing information and cooperation in disaster reduction, where long-term risks should be taken into account in the construction of strategic structures such as roads, bridges, and hydropower projects near international borders.

Parliamentarians from across the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region too had insisted on Wednesday, as news of the devastation emerged, that the tragedy underscored the urgent need for stronger regional cooperation to address climate risks that transcend national boundaries.

They were meeting for the two-day 2nd Hindu Kush Himalaya Parliamentarians’ Meet in Thimphu, where a moment of silence for the victims and their families was also observed, according to the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), an intergovernmental knowledge and learning centre working on behalf of the people of the HKH.

Participants said the disaster highlighted the importance of collective action, stronger preparedness, and sustained regional cooperation to reduce climate-related risks and build resilience across the HKH region. ICIMOD is based in Kathmandu, and works in and for eight regional member countries – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan. The body later examined satellite imagery and concluded that “a massive rock–ice avalanche occurred in Nepal, blocking the Lhende River and triggering cascading floods downstream”.

Their assessment pointed not to tectonic activity but to glacial instability, a phenomenon increasingly linked to climate change. This was corroborated by the US Geological Survey (USGS), which earlier took the tremor as an earthquake.

In a revised statement, the USGS stated that additional analysis of seismic waves and satellite imagery led to the determination that the seismic event was rather a glacial collapse and debris flow, and that no earthquake had occurred. Global warming and construction in nearby areas are largely being seen as the reason for the avalanche, though the actual reason may take some time to be identified, pointed reports.

Some experts compared such glaciers on mountains to cement that helps hold a building together. Mongabay, a US-based non-profit conservation and environmental science news platform, also said that the floods were triggered by a glacier collapse and landslide into a river on the Tibet-Nepal border.

Like other reports, it assumed climate change had loosened the ice “till the entire mountainside, including a glacier clinging to it, collapsed into the river flowing some 3,000 metres below”.

Pointing out that no early warning system would have helped those who were close downstream when the huge chunk and debris fell on Wednesday, the article stated that one way to manage this risk is to be able to predict such a disaster with a credible probability level, so that governments can take protective action. This, it emphasised, would need countries to comprehensively map all icebound slopes above a certain gradient. In the face of such reports, the HKH countries would need to step up research, share data, and coordinate seamlessly to be prepared for such calamities.