Kathmandu, Sep 04: Around 600 children remain unaccounted for in Nepal’s Rasuwa and Nuwakot districts after the devastating flash floods, as the death toll rose to 1,282 on Friday with more than 4,700 missing.
The 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, leaving a trail of destruction.
So far, 359 bodies have been recovered in Chitwan, 218 in Nawalparasi East, 208 in Nawalparasi West, 185 in Nuwakot, 72 in Gorkha, 60 in Dhading, 140 in Rasuwa and 38 in Tanahu, according to Nepal Police.
With two people dying while undergoing treatment in two hospitals in Kathmandu, the death toll has reached 1,282.
The joint command of security forces is searching for 4,798 people missing from different areas.
An estimated 280 children are missing in Rasuwa, and between 300 and 350 others remain unaccounted for in the neighbouring Nuwakot in central Nepal, the Kathmandu Post newspaper reported, citing figures compiled by local Education Development and Coordination Units (EDCUs), local governments, and educational institutions.
Surya Bahadur Khatri, head of the Nuwakot Education Development and Coordination Unit, said, “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.”
“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.”
In Bidur Municipality of Nuwakot alone, roughly 250 children are missing since the floods hit, according to Navaraj Sapkota, school inspector of 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,” said Sapkota.
Bidur houses 170 educational institutions—142 community schools and 28 private schools.
In Rasuwa, Durga Prasad Silwal, chief of the local education unit, said that official verification is ongoing but preliminary records indicate that 280 students are currently missing across the district.
The disaster has also taken a toll on teachers and school staff. Education units confirmed that 22 teachers and school staff members remain missing across both districts.
Additionally, several teachers from Dhading and Gorkha who had travelled to Rasuwa for pilgrimage were caught in the deluge and remain missing.
Rasuwa reported 16 missing teachers—15 from community schools and one from a private institution—while Nuwakot confirmed six missing teachers, according to Kathmandu Post.
Although several bodies of victims have been recovered in downstream districts, authorities have yet to verify the exact number of identified students or teachers.
According to the Ministry of Education data, the floods affected 22 schools across Rasuwa, Nuwakot, and Dhading, with 12 institutions completely destroyed, the report said. ( PTI )
