Twenty-four bodies recovered from flood-hit Trishuli-1 tunnel, still unidentified as search continues

Search teams have recovered 24 bodies from the flood-damaged tunnel of the Upper Trishuli-1 Hydroelectric Project in Haku, Aamachhodingmo Rural Municipality-1, Rasuwa district, according to Nepal News' evening briefing of Sunday, 20 September. The bodies, found entangled in steel reinforcement mesh roughly 100 metres inside the tunnel's Audit-3 section, remain unidentified. Recovery numbers have risen daily since 16 September (five bodies), through 18-19 September (six, then a further eleven to eighteen, depending on the outlet), reflecting the difficulty of the operation rather than a single confirmed total — official figures should be treated as provisional pending Nepal Police and project confirmation.

The bodies are linked to the catastrophic 26 August glacial-lake flood that killed more than 1,300 people nationwide and left thousands still missing. For the diaspora, this is a reminder that the human cost of August's disaster is still being counted a month on, with many families awaiting confirmation of missing relatives, several of whom were migrant labourers on the hydropower site.