UK-based Nepali donors hand Rs 10 million and DNA testing kits to Kathmandu as flood identification continues

Two Nepali community figures based in the United Kingdom handed the Government of Nepal a cheque for Rs 10 million and a consignment of DNA testing kits at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kathmandu on Monday 26 October 2026.

Uttam Nepal presented the cheque, and former Non-Resident Nepali Association (NRNA) president Kul Acharya provided the kits, according to reports of the ceremony. Foreign Minister Shishir Khanal received both. Reports say the donors acted in a personal capacity, and that the support is intended to strengthen the government's research and DNA-testing capacity. Representatives of the NRNA, a member of the House of Representatives and senior ministry officials attended.

None of the reports we reviewed says explicitly how the equipment will be used. The timing, however, points to an obvious context. A glacial and rock collapse on the Nepal–China border on 26 August triggered a flash flood that, according to a wire-agency report published on 3 October, left 1,454 bodies recovered in Nepal, about a third of them partial remains, and 5,285 people missing. Only 112 bodies had been identified and returned to families by then, and more than 1,200 had been buried, numbered and tagged for possible later retrieval. Those figures are now more than three weeks old and may have changed.

That report explained why testing capacity matters. A DNA profile alone cannot identify someone; investigators need reference samples from relatives, and bone or tooth samples can take days to process. India, China, South Korea, and fingerprint experts from the United States and Singapore were reported to be assisting.

The gift is the latest sign of how UK-based Nepali communities have mobilised since the disaster. On 4 October, the "Momos for Nepal" charity dinner at Kailash Momo in Welling, south-east London, raised more than £2,600 for the Nepalese Doctors' Association UK, according to the organisers' account. The association's chair, Dr Arati Thapa, then presented a cheque to Finance Minister Dr Swarnim Wagle on 12 October, the same account says. Those events were organised by the community health initiative Swasthya Chiya, founded by Dr Numa Thebe.