Nepal Observes National Day of Mourning for Over 1,300 Victims of Catastrophic Floods

Nepal is observing a national day of mourning to honor the more than 1,300 individuals who lost their lives in last month's devastating floods. According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, government offices and overseas missions are flying the national flag at half-mast on Monday, marking the 13th day since the disaster struck. In accordance with Hindu tradition, this final day of the mourning period involves close family members staying at home while relatives visit to offer condolences and perform rituals for the departed.

With search teams continuing their operations and resources remaining constrained, the government has refrained from organizing broader public events. Phanindra Paudel of the National Emergency Operation Center (NEOC) informed the Reuters news agency that no official programs have been scheduled due to ongoing rescue and search operations in the affected regions.

The catastrophe occurred on August 26 when a massive wall of mud and rock, triggered by a detached glacier, surged into a river along the Himalayan border between Nepal and China’s Tibet region. The resulting floods caused at least 1,380 fatalities and left over 5,500 people missing. Despite the grim circumstances, search teams recently rescued four individuals, including a Chinese national pulled from a hydropower site tunnel on Saturday, two hydropower workers on Friday, and a Nepali woman recovered from her buried home.

President Ram Chandra Paudel is scheduled to tour the flood-impacted areas on Monday to assess the extent of the damage, as reported by his aide. Meanwhile, in Kathmandu, families gathered near the prime minister's office and key ministries to urge authorities to accelerate search efforts for hundreds of missing workers from hydropower projects who were swept away by the Bhotekoshi River or buried under debris.

Sumana Shrestha joined protestors holding a photograph of her 55-year-old husband, a consulting geologist at the Trishuli hydropower plant office, who has been missing since the flood. Expressing her anguish, she noted that no rescue attempt had been visible at the project site even after 13 days. Another protestter, Mahesh Prasad Shrestha, displayed a picture of his brother Niraj Shrestha, a 52-year-old engineer at the same site, criticizing the delayed deployment of heavy equipment.

Authorities indicate that current rescue efforts are heavily concentrated around 12 hydropower projects, where approximately 900 workers remain missing and nearly 500 are suspected to be trapped inside various tunnels. Specialized rescue teams from India, China, South Korea, and the United States are actively working through the debris, damaged structures, and tunnels to locate survivors.