NUWAKOT, Nepal — In the aftermath of the devastating flood triggered by a glacial and rock collapse on the Nepal-China border on August 26, authorities in Nepal are grappling with the enormous challenge of identifying thousands of victims through DNA testing. The disaster unleashed a massive wall of water and debris across the Himalayan region, sweeping away entire communities and leaving families searching desperately for missing loved ones.

The flood has resulted in a high death toll and a large number of missing persons. Nepal’s disaster management officials have recovered 1,454 bodies, though about one-third of these consist of only partial remains. So far, only 112 bodies have been positively identified and returned to families. Meanwhile, approximately 5,285 people remain unaccounted for in Nepal, including hundreds of foreign nationals. In neighboring China, where the disaster also struck, state reports confirm 43 deaths and 519 missing, bringing the combined toll to nearly 1,500 dead and 5,800 missing.

At two forensic laboratories in Nepal, scientists are undertaking an unprecedented effort to create DNA profiles from remains and build a reference database by also collecting samples from relatives of the missing. Mukul Pradhan, chief scientific officer at the National Forensic Science Laboratory (NFSL), noted that typically the lab analyzes between 10,000 and 15,000 samples annually for paternity or criminal cases, but the current workload has surged to processing thousands of DNA samples related to the disaster.

Currently, 3,685 forensic samples are undergoing DNA analysis, including more than 1,300 taken from recovered bodies. While blood samples can be profiled relatively quickly, extracting DNA from teeth or bones often requires several days. Nepalese authorities have buried more than 1,200 victims, ensuring each body is carefully numbered and tagged to allow for retrieval if a DNA match is established in the future.

The identification process is complicated by the dispersion of remains over wide areas, as floodwaters carried bodies far downstream. Nirajan Thapa, chief of the biology section at the NFSL, explained that unlike in more localized disasters — such as earthquakes or accidents — where unidentified bodies are found within a defined area and samples can be cross-checked in a relatively confined database, this case involves an expansive range of samples and relatives, making the task much larger in scale. Moreover, DNA identification requires corresponding reference samples from relatives to establish matches, necessitating parallel processing of samples from both remains and family members.

Nepal’s police spokesman, Abi Narayan Kafle, acknowledged the difficulty of identifying many bodies and recognized the anguish families are enduring. “We understand the pain people are in and our teams are working diligently,” he said.

International support has bolstered Nepal’s efforts, with countries including India, China, and South Korea dispatching assistance, as well as fingerprint experts from the United States and Singapore providing technical aid. With this collaborative support, officials hope to begin matching remains with families within weeks.

Until identifications are confirmed, many families remain in distress. Some have conducted symbolic cremation ceremonies for missing relatives, while others, like 53-year-old Rajesh Ram from Betrawati, continue to hold onto hope that DNA testing will eventually provide answers. “I am waiting to see if I can find any remains of my son,” Ram said, referring to his missing son, Suroj Kumar, a garage mechanic lost in the flood.

The scale and complexity of this forensic endeavor underscore the long road ahead for Nepal as it confronts the human toll of this catastrophic event.