Indo-Nepal border: Six washed down bodies from Nepal recovered from Gandak

Local residents said they had witnessed several bodies and household belongings being swept downstream towards Bihar by the strong current

At least six bodies, including those of four women, were recovered from the central channel of the Gandak near the India-Nepal border in Maharajganj district on Thursday morning after they were apparently swept downstream from flood-ravaged Nepal, officials said.

Workers use excavators to clear the mud following flash floods in Trishuli in Nepal’s Nuwakot district on Thursday. (AFP)

The bodies were recovered from the B-Gap embankment area near Thokar No. 14, close to the India-Nepal land border. The B-Gap system, which forms part of the river’s central channel, also marks a stretch of the India-Nepal boundary.

West Nawalparasi (Nepal) superintendent of police Madan Thapa said the bodies were recovered from the B-Gap embankment area along the Narayani River in Susta Rural Municipality-4 of Nepal, close to the India-Nepal border.

Nichlaul Tehsildar Piyush Mishra said NDRF personnel, with the help of a steamer, pulled the bodies out of the Gandak in the Nichlaul area adjoining the Nepal border after local residents alerted the authorities. The bodies were subsequently taken for identification and other legal formalities.

In a separate incident, the body of an elderly woman was found in a village along the Narayani river in Khadda tehsil of Kushinagar district. Local residents said they had witnessed several bodies and household belongings being swept downstream towards Bihar by the strong current.

Maharajganj district magistrate Gaurav Singh Sogarwal and superintendent of police Shakti Mohan Awasthi inspected vulnerable stretches of the river by boat along with relief and rescue personnel and members of the SSB’s 22nd Battalion. They assessed water levels, the condition of embankments and preparedness in villages considered vulnerable to flooding.

Sogarwal said, “The water levels of the Gandak and Narayani rivers and the Valmikinagar Barrage are being continuously monitored. The administration is fully prepared to deal with any emergency.”

Surveillance has been intensified in villages located close to the Gandak, particularly Sohgibarwa, Bhutaha and Shikarpur, as well as other vulnerable settlements, he added.

SP Awasthi said teams of the NDRF and SDRF had been pressed into action and relief camps had been set up. Teams from the police, revenue, health and irrigation departments have also been mobilised.

Meanwhile, irrigation department chief engineer Vikas Singh said there was “no need for panic at this time”, noting that the department had successfully handled a discharge of around six lakh cusecs last year.

He said the flood surge would pass through the Valmikinagar Barrage and the districts of Maharajganj and Kushinagar before moving towards Bihar. Deoria, he said, would not fall in the path of the flood surge.

ABDUR RAHMAN