If someone you know is missing in the Nepal flood, you don't have to fly to Kathmandu

Safety & Advisories Nepal Police have identified 95 of more than 1,200 bodies recovered. Families abroad can be DNA-profiled at home and send the result in. Here is how… By Laxman Rawal · Sep 8, 2026 Read the full story

Key facts Nepal Police had identified 95 bodies and returned them to relatives as of 3 September. More than 1,000 bodies and human remains are still unidentified. 897 have already been buried under government health protocols — buried, not closed. 1,794 DNA… Travel Himalaya Nepal · News Read the full story

What the numbers actually say

Ninety-five bodies have been identified and handed back to families. More than a thousand have not. Nepal Police put those figures out on 3 September, alongside a total of 1,794 DNA samples collected — 1,143 taken from remains and 651 from living relatives… Travel Himalaya Nepal · News Read the full story

Why only 95 have been named

Because a flood destroys the things identification normally relies on. A body recovered 150 kilometres downstream in Chitwan, days after the water, rarely arrives with a face, a wallet or clothing anyone recognises. That removes visual identification, which… Travel Himalaya Nepal · News Read the full story

What a family outside Nepal actually does

You give a DNA sample where you live, and the profile is emailed to Nepal Police to be compared against the remains they hold. No flight, no visa, no arriving in Kathmandu to queue at a mortuary. The comparison is run through the Nepal Police Central Forensic… Travel Himalaya Nepal · News Read the full story

What happens to the 897 already buried

Burial here is a public-health measure, not an ending. The 897 bodies interred under government protocol were sampled first, so the DNA record exists independently of the grave. That matters for a family who has not yet come forward. A match made in November… Travel Himalaya Nepal · News Read the full story

Why two families claimed the same body

Because in a disaster this size visual recognition stops being reliable, and grief makes people certain. The Philippine Daily Inquirer reported two families claiming the same body — the clearest possible argument for a rule that looks bureaucratic from the… Travel Himalaya Nepal · News Read the full story

What we would tell a family waiting

Give the sample now, even if you are holding on to the hope that it will not be needed. There are 651 relative samples against more than a thousand unidentified bodies, and that gap is the reason matches are not being made faster. Every profile added to the… Travel Himalaya Nepal · News Read the full story

Reported from Nepal

Our coverage We are based in Pokhara and we are following this story. Figures are provisional and we date every one of them. Read the full report