Nepal Flood Death Toll Reaches 781; Rescue Portal Shows More Than 10,000 People Still Missing
Armed Police Force, Nepal personnel carry out rescue operations in flood-affected areas. Photo: Armed Police Force, Nepal
Nepal’s official death toll from the devastating Rasuwa flood has risen to 781, while 2,502 people remain missing, according to the latest bulletin issued by the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority.
The verified casualty figures differ sharply from those on the government’s public-facing Rescue Request Portal, operated by the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, which had received 15,068 missing-person reports as of its latest update.
Government officials cautioned that the portal data are preliminary and may change significantly as duplicate submissions are identified and records are cleaned. They said the published figures could fluctuate by 10% to 20%. Officials said the portal is designed to collect public complaints and self-reported information during the emergency and should not be interpreted as a verified casualty list.
The platform may contain multiple reports for the same person, they said, while the NDRRMA figures are based on verified records compiled by district administrations and security agencies. The discrepancy highlights the difficulty of accounting for victims after the flood, which swept through communities and infrastructure corridors in and around Rasuwa and affected districts downstream.
Verified Deaths Across Eight Districts
The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority said 781 bodies had been recovered across eight districts following the devastating Rasuwa flood. Chitwan recorded the highest number of confirmed deaths, with 272 bodies recovered, followed by Nawalparasi East with 199 and Nawalparasi West with 100.
Authorities also recovered 58 bodies in Gorkha, 52 in Nuwakot, 50 in Dhading, 37 in Tanahun and 13 in Rasuwa. Chitwan alone accounts for about 34.8% of all confirmed deaths, while Nawalparasi East and Nawalparasi West together account for 299 bodies, or about 38.3% of the total.
Of the 2,502 people officially listed as missing, 933 are hydropower project workers, making them the largest group in the government’s verified missing-person bulletin. The list also includes 592 foreign nationals and 562 people reported missing by local authorities in Rasuwa.
Another 127 Nepali citizens who were traveling with foreign nationals remain unaccounted for, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority. The missing also include 115 people in Nuwakot, 65 in Makwanpur, 45 Nepal Army personnel, 25 Nepal Police officers, 13 Armed Police Force personnel, 15 customs staff members, four immigration officers, three Langtang National Park employees and three quarantine office staff members.
Rescue and Search Operations Continue
Authorities said 9,435 people have been rescued so far, including 279 people evacuated by helicopter from a hydropower tunnel.
A total of 20,618 security personnel have been deployed in affected areas, including 8,521 Nepal Army personnel, 7,894 Nepal Police officers and 4,203 Armed Police Force personnel. Rescue operations have been supported by 394 helicopter flights.
The Nepal Army represents about 41.3% of the total deployed security force, followed by Nepal Police at 38.3% and the Armed Police Force at 20.4%.
A total of 267 injured people have been recorded. Of them, 156 have been discharged from medical facilities, while the remaining 111 were still receiving treatment, according to the latest figures. Six surgical medical teams are working in affected areas.
The Rescue Request Portal had logged 15,068 missing-person reports, including 10,194 people listed as untraced and 4,874 listed as found. Of those reported found, 4,323 cases were listed as fully resolved, while 551 people were awaiting reunification with family members, according to portal data.
The system recorded 7,095 new missing-person reports during the previous 24 hours, accounting for about 47.1% of all reports submitted to date. The portal also listed 993 missing children younger than 18 and 524 missing senior citizens aged 60 or older. Together, those groups account for 1,517 reports, or about 10.1% of all missing-person submissions.
If the portal’s reported 10% to 20% duplication range is applied to the 15,068 submissions, the number of unique reports could fall to roughly 12,054 to 13,561. A separate estimate applying the same adjustment to the 10,194 people still listed as untraced would place the number between about 8,155 and 9,175.
Even after a 20% reduction for potential duplication, however, the portal’s missing-person total would remain nearly five times higher than the NDRRMA’s verified count of 2,502 missing people.
Assistance Requests Remain Largely Unresolved
The Rescue Request Portal had also received 260 requests for assistance. Of those, 208 were classified as open, including 170 marked critical or urgent. Authorities said response operations were underway for 45 requests, while only three had been resolved.
Open requests account for 80% of all assistance requests, while urgent requests represent about 65.4% of the total. Active response operations were underway for 17.3% of requests, and only 1.2% had been resolved.
The portal had also received 105 offers of assistance from individuals and organizations. All 105 offers remained listed as available for deployment.
Officials urged families to continue reporting missing relatives through official channels but said members of the public should avoid treating the portal’s raw submissions as confirmed casualty figures. They said the NDRRMA’s verified bulletin remains the government’s authoritative record for confirmed deaths and officially documented missing persons.