India sends fifth relief shipment to Nepal as flood death toll reaches 1,127

INDIA sent its fifth shipment of relief to Nepal on Wednesday as the country continued to search for thousands of people missing after last week's flash floods, with the death toll rising to 1,127.

The latest Indian shipment, carried by an aircraft that has departed for Nepal, includes an 11-member rescue team with specialised equipment and 5.5 tonnes of essential medicines.

The aid comes as families across flood-hit areas continue to wait for news of relatives. Nepal Police said 4,858 people remain missing, while details of 911 unidentified bodies have been uploaded to its website to help families identify missing relatives.

The death toll rose to 1,127 on Wednesday, September 2, 2026, after more bodies were recovered from affected areas.

Nepal Police said 348 bodies were recovered from Chitwan, 217 from Nawalparasi East, 190 from Nawalparasi West and 155 from Nuwakot. Another 66 were recovered from Gorkha, 59 from Dhading, 45 from Rasuwa and 38 from Tanahu.

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Postmortem and legal identification procedures had been completed for 1,113 bodies, police said, while 95 had been handed over to relatives.

Security forces have rescued 6,541 people from the affected areas, while search operations continue for those still missing. Authorities have deployed 7,912 police personnel to flood-hit areas for search and rescue operations, relief distribution and the management of recovered bodies.

Police teams are also moving families from high-risk areas to safer locations, clearing roads blocked by debris and coordinating search, rescue and relief operations with local authorities and residents.

The flash floods, triggered by a collapse or avalanche of ice and rock near the Nepal-Tibet border, devastated towns and villages in northern and central Nepal on August 26.

The search has been made harder by continued rain in some of the affected areas.

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Rain is disrupting search and rescue operations in Rasuwa and Nuwakot. Meteorologist Rojan Lamichhane at the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology said there was a possibility of moderate rain in Bhotekoshi flood-affected areas on Wednesday afternoon.

Lamichhane said nearby areas affected by the Bhotekoshi flood, including Rasuwa, Nuwakot and Dhading, may also experience moderate rain in the afternoon.

The highest rainfall recorded in the past 12 hours was 60.2 millimeters at the weather station in Nosyam Pati, Sindhupalchok, according to the department.

Moderate rainfall has occurred in many areas of Bagmati, Gandaki and Lumbini provinces, while some areas of Koshi, Karnali and Sudurpaschim provinces have experienced light to moderate rainfall.

The department said the weather would generally be cloudy across the country on Wednesday afternoon. Authorities said heavy rain was possible at a few places in the mountainous regions of Koshi, Bagmati and Gandaki provinces on Wednesday night.

In Bhotekoshi flood-affected areas, water inside tunnels has added to the difficulties facing rescue teams.

Executive chief of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA), Dharma Raj Uprety, said water filling up in a tunnel due to rain had caused additional challenges in search and rescue operations.

According to Uprety, overnight rain caused water to fill the hydropower tunnel.

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Search and rescue operations have been hampered by the difficult conditions inside the project tunnels. Teams involving the Nepali Army, Armed Police Force, foreign technical experts and project employees have been searching for missing workers but have yet to locate them.

Former president of the Independent Power Producers' Association, Nepal (IPPAN), Ganesh Karki, said rescue efforts had also been slowed because equipment cannot easily be transported to the tunnels.

He said locating the entrances to the tunnels had itself become difficult.

“The material carried by the river has reached over the tunnels,” Karki said. “It has become difficult even to determine the exact location of the tunnel entrances.”

India has delivered over 68 tonnes of relief materials to Nepal so far. It has also sent doctors and paramedics as well as a technical contingent with equipment for search and rescue operations.

The first tranche of relief materials was sent by India hours after prime minister Narendra Modi spoke to Nepal prime minister Balendra Shah on August 26, 2026, the day the flash floods struck. Modi had assured Balendra Shah of all possible humanitarian assistance to deal with the situation.

(With inputs from agencies)