Around 600 children missing after Nepal flash floods; toll rises to 1,282

Around 600 children remain unaccounted for in Nepal’s Rasuwa and Nuwakot districts following last month’s devastating flash floods, which have claimed 1,282 lives and left more than 4,700 people missing.

The floods, triggered by an ice-rock avalanche near the Nepal-Tibet border on 26 August, swept through towns and villages across northern and central Nepal, causing widespread loss of life and extensive damage to infrastructure.

Nepal Police said 359 bodies had been recovered in Chitwan, 218 in Nawalparasi East, 208 in Nawalparasi West, 185 in Nuwakot, 140 in Rasuwa, 72 in Gorkha, 60 in Dhading and 38 in Tanahu.

The deaths of two people receiving treatment at separate hospitals in Kathmandu subsequently raised the toll to 1,282.

A joint command comprising Nepal’s security forces is continuing search operations for 4,798 people reported missing from different flood-affected areas.

Preliminary information indicates that about 280 children are missing in Rasuwa, while between 300 and 350 remain unaccounted for in neighbouring Nuwakot, the Kathmandu Post reported. The estimates are based on information gathered by local Education Development and Coordination Units, municipal authorities and educational institutions.

Surya Bahadur Khatri, head of the Nuwakot Education Development and Coordination Unit, said officials were coordinating with school headmasters to verify the number of missing pupils. However, damaged communication networks were hampering the collection of accurate information.

“We are actively liaising with headmasters to collect verified data on missing students, though school heads are struggling to provide exact figures due to broken communications,” Khatri said.

“Although a few missing students have been located, new reports of unaccounted-for children continue to arrive from various schools. We estimate that at least 300 pupils are missing in our district,” he added.

Nearly 250 children are believed to be missing from Bidur Municipality in Nuwakot alone, according to Navaraj Sapkota, a school inspector with the municipality’s education unit.

“The situation on the ground is deeply distressing. In some cases, we have located surviving parents who cannot find their children, while in other instances, surviving students are searching for missing parents,” Sapkota said.

Bidur Municipality has 170 educational institutions, comprising 142 community schools and 28 private schools.

In Rasuwa, local education unit chief Durga Prasad Silwal said verification remained under way, but preliminary records showed that 280 students were missing across the district.

The disaster has also affected teachers and other school employees. Education authorities said 22 teachers and staff members remained missing across Rasuwa and Nuwakot.

Rasuwa has reported 16 missing teachers, including 15 from community schools and one from a private institution, while six teachers are missing in Nuwakot. Several teachers from Dhading and Gorkha who had travelled to Rasuwa on pilgrimage were also caught in the floods and remain unaccounted for.

Although bodies have been recovered in several downstream districts, authorities have yet to establish how many of the victims were students or teachers.

According to data from Nepal’s Ministry of Education, 22 schools across Rasuwa, Nuwakot and Dhading were affected by the floods. Twelve of them were completely destroyed.

With PTI inputs