Nepal floods: DNA testing offers last hope to families of missing

DNA testing has emerged as a crucial tool for identifying hundreds of bodies recovered after devastating floods in Nepal. With remains often damaged or fragmented, families of missing people are turning to forensic science for answers, closure and the chance to perform final rites

Kathmandu: When Amrit Diyali saw a human hand washed downstream by floodwaters, he was struck by how closely it resembled that of his younger brother Raj Kumar, who has been missing along with his wife and four-year-old son since devastating floods hit Nepal.

“I found a hand that looks exactly like uncle’s,” Diyali’s nephew Avinash told him after sending him a photograph of the severed hand, according to The Kathmandu Post newspaper.

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For Diyali, the discovery brought both hope and dread. A DNA test is now his family’s only chance of knowing whether the remains belong to his brother.

The case reflects a much larger challenge facing Nepal, where authorities are relying on DNA testing to identify hundreds of bodies recovered after the August 26 floods and help families find relatives who remain missing.

Flash floods, triggered by an ice-rock avalanche near the Nepal-Tibet border on August 26, devastated towns and villages in northern and central Nepal.

The Bhotekoshi River, which flows south from the Himalayan border region, carried the floodwaters downstream, sweeping away homes, vehicles, roads and bridges and damaging hydropower projects.

The disaster has killed more than 1,300 people, while around 5,000 remain missing.

Police have so far collected 2,272 DNA samples — 1,260 from bodies and 1,012 from relatives — as they try to establish the identities of those killed in the disaster, The Kathmandu Post reported.

Authorities said 1,030 bodies had been buried after DNA samples were collected and other identification procedures completed. The figure includes 222 women, 355 men and 453 bodies whose sex could not be established, the newspaper reported.

Only 96 bodies have been handed over to families so far after identification, according to Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority.

Identifying the dead has emerged as a major challenge.

Bodies recovered after being swept downstream have often been severely damaged, decomposed or recovered only in parts, making identification by face, clothing or personal belongings difficult, officials said.

Prolonged immersion in water and exposure to mud and debris can destroy identifiable features, while some remains have been fragmented or mixed with other remains.

Forensic experts say DNA testing has therefore become crucial, but it is a time-consuming process requiring samples from the remains and biological relatives for comparison.

Fingerprints and dental records can also establish identities, but their usefulness depends on the condition of the remains and the availability of matching records, officials said.

For families such as the Diyalis, however, identification is not merely a forensic exercise. It is a way of ending days of uncertainty and allowing them to perform the final rites of their loved ones.

Raj Kumar, 33, his 30-year-old wife Shriti and their four-year-old son Siraj were living in Syaphrubesi in Rasuwa district when the Bhotekoshi flood struck. His relatives searched along the river as far as Chitwan and Nawalpur, turning over mud and stones in the hope of finding the family. When they could not find them alive, they began looking for their bodies.

Five days after the flood, Raj Kumar’s nephew Avinash found the hand in Nawalpur. The family sent a sample from it to the National Forensic Science Laboratory in Kathmandu on Tuesday for DNA testing. The sample is 182nd in line for testing, according to Diyali.

“We have stopped hoping for anything else,” he told The Kathmandu Post. “Even if that hand turns out to be my brother’s, at least we would know for sure.”

To make the process easier for families, Nepal Police has opened a DNA sample collection centre in Bidur, Nuwakot, allowing relatives of missing people to provide samples without travelling to Kathmandu, the Ratopati news portal reported.

Deputy Inspector General of Nepal Police Hospital Damodar Poudel said samples from close blood relatives such as parents, children and siblings are particularly useful for comparison with DNA obtained from unidentified bodies.

According to Poudel, DNA testing will help with identification, as there are difficulties in identifying the bodies.

Authorities have also uploaded details of 1,270 unidentified bodies on the Nepal Police website so families can check whether their missing relatives are among those recovered, The Kathmandu Post reported.