Bodies Recovered from Bhote Koshi River Sent to Hospitals

Pokhara. Bodies washed away by the flood in the Bhote Koshi River are being collected and sent to hospitals. Bodies found in areas like Nawalpur and Tanahu are being sent to Kaski. So far, 9 bodies have arrived, and 47 more are on their way. According to Kaski administration, the bodies that have arrived have been kept in the morgue of Pokhara Institute of Health Sciences. The process of identifying the bodies has also started as soon as they arrive. Chief District Officer Kuman Singh Gurung said that managing so many bodies might be difficult only in Pokhara hospitals. Pokhara currently has a total capacity to keep 88 bodies. 'We have a capacity to keep 88 bodies. If the situation arises where we have to manage more than this, we do not have additional capacity,' he said, 'For that, we will have to look at neighboring districts closer than Pokhara for body management and coordination is being done accordingly.' He informed that 9 bodies have already been brought from Tanahu. 27 bodies from Nawalpur and 20 from Dhading are on their way. Gurung informed that a plan has been made to manage bodies exceeding capacity in hospitals of neighboring districts like Tanahu, Lamjung, Gorkha, Syangja, Baglung, and Parbat. He stated that coordination with neighboring districts was necessary because technically, it is difficult to maintain the required temperature for a large number of bodies by installing additional AC and other equipment in the same hall. To keep the bodies safe, 117 body bags have been sent from Pokhara to Madhya Bindu Hospital and 50 to Nawalpur Red Cross, and the administration has 117 more bags in stock, he said. 'Technically, there may be a problem in maintaining the temperature if many bodies are kept in the same hall by adding AC. Therefore, preparations are being made to manage them in hospitals of other districts,' Gurung said. Tanahu has the capacity to manage 9 bodies, Lamjung 4, and Gorkha 2. Kaski's Police Chief SP Naveen Karki informed that work is also being done on identifying the bodies as soon as they start arriving. The body management committee, chaired by him, is carrying out the management work. 'Our first priority is to identify the bodies. Initially, post-mortems will be done, we will take fingerprints, and DNA will also be extracted during the post-mortem,' he said, 'For bodies that are recognizable, we will take pictures and publish them on various portals for identification and call the relatives.' Bodies that cannot be identified for a long time will be safely cremated in designated places in coordination with Pokhara Metropolitan City or the concerned local level. Karki said that each body will be tagged for identification while managing them. 'Bodies that are not identified for a long time will be buried safely with an identification number (tag),' he added, 'The directive has a provision that if any relative comes to identify based on a picture or DNA matching in the future, the body can be found based on that tag number and handed over to the relatives.'