Clutching a photograph of his missing son, Rajesh Ram is pinning his hopes on DNA testing — like thousands of others desperately seeking relatives swept away by Nepal’s catastrophic Himalayan floods.
asserted
Ram → clutch → floods
“I searched for him everywhere, but I could not find his body,” 53-year-old Ram told AFP, still waiting for answers about his son Suroj Kumar, a garage mechanic in Betrawati, which was swamped by the floods.
uncertain
which → search → floods
Nepal was overwhelmed by the sheer scale of destruction from the tsunami-like wall of freezing water and debris triggered by a glacial and rock collapse on the Nepal-China border on August 26.
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Nepal → overwhelm → August
With thousands of DNA profiles to process, fragmented remains and limited technical capacity and manpower, experts warn matching bodies to families could take weeks.
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matching → process → weeks
Nepali disaster authorities have recovered 1,454 bodies — but around a third of those are only partial remains.
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third → recover → those
Just 112 bodies have been identified and returned to their families.
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bodies → identify → families
A further 5,285 people are missing in Nepal, including hundreds of foreigners.
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people → miss → foreigners
In China, the toll is 43 dead and 519 missing, according to state media — taking the combined toll to nearly 1,500 dead and 5,800 missing.
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toll → miss → 1,500
At Nepal’s two forensic laboratories, both in Kathmandu, experts are working to profile samples and build a database on a scale they have never handled before.
“In a year we would analyse 1,000-1,500 samples, often in case of paternity or crime scenes,” said Mukul Pradhan, chief scientific officer at the National Forensic Science Laboratory.
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Pradhan → work → Laboratory
“We are now processing thousands of samples.”
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We → process → samples
‘Pain’
A total of 3,685 forensic samples are undergoing DNA testing, including more than 1,300 collected from recovered bodies.
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total → undergo → bodies
Blood samples are easier to profile, but those taken from teeth or bones can take several days to process.
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those → profile → days
Nepal has buried more than 1,200 bodies, carefully numbering and tagging them so they can be retrieved if a DNA match is found.
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match → bury → them
“A large number of people are missing, and the bodies that have been found they are difficult to identify,” said Nepali police spokesman Abi Narayan Kafle.
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Kafle → miss → people
“We understand the pain people are in, and our teams are working diligently.
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teams → understand → pain
Some bodies were carried far downstream by the floodwaters, further complicating the task, said Nirajan Thapa, Chief of Biology section at the National Forensic Science Laboratory.
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Thapa → carry → Laboratory
“In an earthquake or an accident, people are recovered in a specific area, so we work in a closed scenario — the body’s DNA has to be compared to a limited number of samples,” Thapa said.
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Thapa → recover → samples
“But that scale has now become very large.”
DNA alone cannot identify a body without a reference sample from a relative.
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DNA → become → relative
“Just by extracting a DNA profile is not enough to identify someone,” Thapa said.
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Thapa → extract → someone
“We have to extract a DNA profile from their relatives and then compare.
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We → have → relatives
That means authorities must process samples from both unidentified remains and thousands of relatives before they can establish matches.
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they → mean → matches
Several countries have sent in support teams, including neighbouring India and China, as well as South Korea.
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countries → send → India
Fingerprint experts from the United States and Singapore are also assisting.
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experts → assist → States
Thapa said that with that help, matching could begin within a few weeks.
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matching → say → weeks
But until the results come, the families behind those samples face a painful limbo.
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families → come → limbo
Some families have held symbolic cremation funerals for the missing.
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families → hold → missing
Ram wonders if he will ever get any answers.
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he → wonder → answers
“I am waiting if I can find any remains of my son,” he said.
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he → wait → son
Header image: An aerial view shows a search and rescue team member, along with a sniffer dog, looks for missing people following the August 26 flash flood, on the banks of the Trishuli River in Nepal’s Nuwakot district on September 30, 2026.
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member → show → September
The Aporia
