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Nepal has begun burying some of the hundreds of bodies recovered after devastating floods, taking DNA samples and marking graves so families can later retrieve them for traditional cremation, officials said on Sunday.
Foreign Secretary Amrit Bahadur Rai told reporters that all those buried were carefully recorded, but appealed for international support, saying Nepal needed “more than a thousand” freezer units to store bodies.
“Following standard and accepted protocols, such as those of ICRC (Red Cross), the mortal remains of the dead, especially those not recognisable… have been temporarily buried,” Rai told reporters.
“Medical teams took DNA samples from every victim prior to the burial so that families can match-reference later, and would be allowed to exhume for necessary rituals.”
The disaster ministry increased its toll to 752 bodies recovered and 2,502 people missing, including 589 foreigners unaccounted for.
Chinese state media earlier confirmed 16 dead in Tibet and 546 people missing following Wednesday’s disaster, taking the overall toll to 768 dead and 3,048 unaccounted for.
Rai said the government had requested different countries for freezers, adding that “we will need more than a thousand.”
“Many dead bodies have been collected, and they have started decomposing. To preserve public health, we had to bury the decomposing bodies,” he added.
The dead are traditionally cremated on funeral pyres in Hindu-majority Nepal, so the burials are viewed as long-term storage until families can retrieve them.
Nepal has also called for DNA testing kits, as it is overwhelmed with the number of bodies to store safely.
