Nepal Holds National Day of Mourning After Floods Kill Over 1,300
Nepal observed a national day of mourning on Monday to remember more than 1,300 people killed in catastrophic Himalayan floods, as families completed traditional mourning rituals and demanded faster rescue operations for hundreds still missing.
Government offices and diplomatic missions lowered national flags to half-mast, according to the Ministry of Home Affairs. Monday marked the 13th day since a glacier broke off and triggered a massive wall of mud and rock that collapsed into a river along the border of Nepal and China’s Tibet region on August 26.
According to Nepal’s disaster management agency, the disaster killed at least 1,380 people and left more than 5,500 missing, including foreign nationals.
### Hindu Rituals and Memorials
In predominantly Hindu Nepal, the 13th day marks the conclusion of traditional mourning periods. Close family members remain at home during the two-week span while relatives visit to pay respects. Final day rituals include prayers for the souls of the departed.
Because many bodies remain unrecovered, several families performed symbolic funerals to complete vital Hindu cremation rites. Families stated that performing the ceremonies provided a sense of spiritual release despite the absence of remains. Candlelight vigils were also held across Kathmandu in memory of the victims.
### Hydropower Site Protests
Search efforts have concentrated heavily on 12 hydropower projects where approximately 900 workers remain missing. Authorities estimate that about 500 people are trapped inside various tunnels across the sites. Specialized rescue teams from India, China, South Korea and the United States have deployed to search through debris and damaged structures.
Rescue teams pulled four people alive from project sites in recent days, including a Chinese national extracted from a tunnel on Saturday, two Nepalese workers rescued from another tunnel on Friday, and a Nepali woman pulled from a buried house on Saturday.
Despite international assistance, relatives gathered near the offices of the prime minister and key ministries in Kathmandu on Monday to protest the pace of operations. Protestors argued that authorities failed to deploy heavy equipment quickly enough to remote project zones.
Sumana Shrestha stood near government offices holding a photograph of her 55-year-old husband, a consulting geologist who worked at the Trishuli hydropower project and has not been heard from since the flood buried the two-and-a-half-story office.
“We are here because we have not heard of any rescue attempt on this project, but it has been 13 days already,” Shrestha said, adding that families were left relying entirely on prayer.
Mahesh Prasad Shrestha, who held a portrait of his missing 52-year-old engineer brother Niraj Shrestha, criticized the initial response timeline. He stated that authorities waited until the sixth or seventh day to dispatch a small excavator by helicopter, arguing that officials should have requested heavy-lift aircraft from China or India immediately.
### Official Response and Ongoing Search
While the government declared an official day of mourning, officials stated that wider public events were not planned because search and rescue operations remain active.
“There are no government programmes organised as the rescue and search operation is still going on in the flood-hit areas,” Phanindra Paudel of the National Emergency Operation Center told Reuters.
President Ram Chandra Paudel scheduled a tour of flood-affected districts on Monday to survey the extent of the infrastructure damage, according to his aide. Search and excavation operations at the blocked hydropower tunnels continue as international teams coordinate with local authorities.