Nepal floods: 13 bodies recovered in Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh's Kushinagar district has recovered 13 bodies from the river so far, as bodies continue to flow into India's Uttar Pradesh through the Narayani-Gandak river system due to devastating floods and flash floods in Nepal, officials said. Of the 13, six are men and seven are women.

Bandita Srivastava, officer-in-charge district magistrate of Kushinagar, said the bodies are being preserved as per protocol. Six bodies have been kept at the morgue of Kushinagar Medical College, and seven have been sent to AIIMS Gorakhpur.

The bodies will be handed over to Nepal authorities through the foreign ministry after completion of postmortem and necessary legal procedures. The district administration and the state disaster response force are keeping close watch over the river to recover bodies. Along with human bodies, carcasses of animals and birds are also being seen floating in.

Meanwhile, in a separate operation, four unidentified bodies were recovered from a river in Uttar Pradesh's Maharajganj district. Of them, three are women and one is a man. After postmortem, the bodies were handed over to Nepal Police.

Prashant Kumar, additional district magistrate, said DNA samples of the bodies were collected and given to Nepal Police after completion of legal procedures. This DNA information will be sent to the Nepal administration to help identify and match the bodies with relatives of missing persons.

A high alert has been issued in Maharajganj due to its proximity to the Nepal border and bodies being swept in by the strong current.

Notably, the death toll from the flash floods and landslides in Nepal has risen to 903, with 4,247 people still missing.