Kathmandu. The devastating floods in Bhotekoshi on September 10 caused huge human and physical damage in Rasuwa, Nuwakot and Dhading areas. Thousands of people have been left out of contact since the first day of the floods. However, even on the 27th day of the incident, there is a big confusion in the figures rather than the number of ‘missing’. <\/p>\n
According to the latest government data, more than 1,400 deaths have been confirmed and thousands are still missing. According to Ram Bahadur KC, spokesperson of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority, the government figures for September 18 show that 1,451 people have died and 5,875 are missing. This has raised a serious question: Why is the number of missing people not decreasing as expected even as bodies and remains are being found? <\/p>\n
One of the main reasons for this is seen in the government’s statistics. Initially, the number of missing persons made public by different agencies was different. In some lists, the details of the same person can be repeated, it takes time to remove the names of the rescued people, and the unidentified bodies cannot be placed on the list of the dead immediately. <\/p>\n
On the other hand, the distance between the data of the dead and the missing can remain for a long time due to the lack of identification even if the body is found. According to the government data, thousands of DNA samples have been collected and the process of matching the samples of relatives is underway. As of September 17, 3,230 DNA samples have been collected, according to the government data. However, due to the delay in the identification process, the families have not been able to get definite information about whether their loved ones have been found. The fact that some of the bodies have been swept to the bottom by the river, some are buried in mud and debris, and it is difficult to search inside the tunnels and structures of the hydropower project, adding to the challenge of ascertaining the exact number. <\/p>\n
This is the reason why the question is not only ‘Is the government hiding the data?’ but also how effective is the mechanism to extract the actual data from the government? It is also the same. The details collected separately by the Ministry of Home Affairs, National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority, Nepal Police, Nepal Army and local levels should be integrated into a single system and the name, address, place of contact, status of rescue, status of the body found or identified and the status of DNA testing should be updated. <\/p>\n
Currently, the number of disappearances varies on different dates in the government data, with 5,130 on September 10, 6,145 on September 17 and 5,875 on September 19. Such fluctuations indicate that the process of data collection and verification is still not stable. <\/p>\n
The Bhotekoshi floods have not only caused great damage to the people, but also to the roads, bridges, settlements, hydropower projects, businesses and local economy of Nepal. According to the government report, thousands of security personnel have been deployed in the rescue operation after the disaster and more than two thousand helicopters have been flown out. Search is also going on in the tunnels and ruins of the hydropower project, where bodies have been found in recent days. However, the failure to provide the exact details of the missing people to the families of the missing people despite the mobilization of such huge resources, means and manpower has become another major challenge of disaster management. <\/p>\n
Now it is not enough for the government to make public the new numbers. It is necessary to publish a single official and regularly updated data on who is missing, who has been found, whose bodies are yet to be identified and how many deaths are yet to be confirmed. The state should provide evidence-based information to the families of the missing persons, not estimates. The data currently available does not provide enough evidence to conclude that the data is ‘hidden’ from the government; rather, the data shows that there is a problem of duplication, delay in identification and verification. <\/p>\n
But if this ambiguity persists for a long time, the government’s confidence in the data will weaken. On the 27th day of the Bhotekoshi floods, the biggest question is when will the government complete the task of finding the bodies and the actual account of the missing people?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kathmandu. The devastating floods in Bhotekoshi on September 10 caused huge human and physical damage in Rasuwa, Nuwakot and Dhading areas. Thousands of people have been left out of contact since the first day of the floods. However, even on the 27th day of the incident, there is a big confusion in the figures rather […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38415,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[90,123,126,129,147],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-en","category-banking-update-en","category-banking-news-en","category-special-en","category-news-en"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/english.bankingsansar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/flood-1.jpg","publishedDateNp":"\u096b \u0906\u0936\u094d\u0935\u093f\u0928 \u0968\u0966\u096e\u0969, \u0938\u094b\u092e\u092c\u093e\u0930 \u0967\u0967:\u0969\u0969","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.bankingsansar.com\/bs_api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.bankingsansar.com\/bs_api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.bankingsansar.com\/bs_api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.bankingsansar.com\/bs_api\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.bankingsansar.com\/bs_api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39357"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/english.bankingsansar.com\/bs_api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39358,"href":"https:\/\/english.bankingsansar.com\/bs_api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39357\/revisions\/39358"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.bankingsansar.com\/bs_api\/wp\/v2\/media\/38415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.bankingsansar.com\/bs_api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.bankingsansar.com\/bs_api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.bankingsansar.com\/bs_api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}