Kathmandu’s disaster management authority officially updated the casualty ledger on Wednesday, lifting the missing count in the August 26 floods from 5,179 to 6,150. Shanti Mahat, the disaster authority spokesman, confirmed the revision followed a fresh verification sweep across affected district offices. The total death toll stands at 1,403 in Nepal, while Tibet reported 43 deaths and 519 missing. That puts the combined regional toll at 1,446 dead and at least 6,669 missing, with 189 Indians included in the unaccounted-for list.
While the numbers swelled, boots-on-the-ground teams secured a grim breakthrough in Rasuwa. Specialized Indian Army personnel and Nepali rescuers dug the final stretch of the Chilime underground powerhouse by hand, reaching a point where excavators and wheel loaders could no longer advance. They recovered five bodies there. Six workers were believed trapped inside; search continues for the remaining one.
Hope had flickered earlier in the week when engineer Shriram Neupane reported what sounded like voices or echoes from deep within the tunnel. "We are expecting some good news," he said on Monday as teams pushed forward. The optimism proved short-lived, replaced by the physical labor of clearing debris. Sagar Dhakal, a ruling party MP and engineer who worked alongside the teams, described the effort as a personal duty. "I was the labourer where it was necessary to be," Dhakal said, emphasizing the manual nature of the rescue.
At the neighboring Upper Trishuli-1 project, a joint team from the Nepal Army and the hydropower operator pulled five bodies from the Audit-3 tunnel on Wednesday. Druba Prasad Adhikari, the Rasuwa assistant chief district officer, confirmed the recovery during ongoing search and rescue operations. The discovery marks the first mass recovery of bodies from the sealed tunnels in three weeks.
With the immediate search operations in Rasuwa continuing, authorities face the daunting task of processing the newly verified missing list. The next critical step involves coordinating with Indian and Tibetan officials to finalize the identification of the 189 missing Indians and 519 missing Tibetans, a process that will likely extend weeks as families await definitive answers.