- Narayani river continues to reveal bodies nine days after the floods
- Over 350 bodies recovered in Chitwan; search ongoing using drones
- Unidentified dead buried temporarily in forest graves awaiting DNA matches
We left Kathmandu at six in the morning.
It should have been a four-hour journey to Bharatpur. It took us eight. The highway connecting Kathmandu to Chitwan has been badly damaged by the floods, so we had to take the longer route, winding through parts of the Mahabharat range before descending again to the plains.
But by the time we reached Bharatpur, the road was no longer the story. The river was.
The Narayani.
This is where the floodwaters have carried the dead, downstream from the Bhote Koshi, through the Trishuli, and into the Narayani. And on Day 9, the river is still giving them up.
We watched as Nepali police personnel went out into the river on boats, searching the water and its rocky banks.
They returned with two bodies.
One in a blue body bag. Another in white.
They were brought to the bank, where four men struggled to lift one of the bags from the boat.
These are not easy bodies to carry.
After days in the water, the remains are severely decomposed and waterlogged. It took four men to lift one body bag onto the bank. Then they carried it roughly 40 metres to an ambulance. But even there, there was a wait. The legal formalities had to be completed before the bodies could be moved.
Because these are not just bodies. They are someone's missing son. Someone's father. Someone's husband. Someone's brother. And somewhere, families are still waiting to know.
The police here tell us more than 350 bodies have now been recovered in Chitwan. And the search has not stopped. Drones are being used along the banks of the Narayani, scanning the river for bodies that may still be floating downstream or caught along its edges.
The river is wide.
The current is relentless.
And there are still people somewhere in it.
