Many Nepalis swept away in the floods aren't officially dead, leaving families in limbo

At the Pashupatinath temple on the banks of the Bagmati River in Kathmandu, Madan Lal Lawat joined other families honouring loved ones lost in a deadly flood that tore through the China‑Nepal border last month. In Hindu tradition, when a body cannot be recovered, a symbolic effigy is made from kusha grass to represent the dead, allowing relatives to perform last rites. More than 5,000 people remain missing after the flood, and authorities have ended rescue operations. Five of Lawat’s relatives, including his brother Mangal, were caught in the water’s onslaught and are still unaccounted for. Lawat survived because he was driving his bus outside his village of Betrawati. The last word he received from survivors was that Mangal died while going door‑to‑door, urging neighbours to evacuate. “I don’t know how to start over. Police say they’re still searching for the bodies, but I’m not sure they’ll ever be found,” Lawat says. He has little doubt they are dead, but under Nepali law a missing person is presumed dead only after 12 years. Section 40 of the Civil Code allows some exceptions,