Nepal Wednesday sharply revised the number of people missing in the Aug 26 floods to 6,150 from 5,179, adding nearly 1,000 names after fresh verification across affected districts. The revision came as rescuers recovered 10 bodies from two hydropower projects in Rasuwa – five each from Chilime and Upper Trishuli-1 – three weeks after the disaster.“We have been collecting details on the missing people from the district offices, and revised the data after verification,” disaster authority spokesman Shanti Mahat said. Nepal’s total stood at 1,403 dead and 6,150 missing, while Tibet reported 43 deaths and 519 missing, taking the combined toll to 1,446 dead and at least 6,669 missing. At least 189 Indians are among those missing.At Chilime, five bodies were recovered after specialised Indian Army personnel and Nepali rescuers reached the underground powerhouse by digging the final stretch by hand when excavators and wheel loaders could advance no farther. Six workers were believed trapped inside, and search continued for the remaining worker.Hopes of finding survivors had briefly risen after engineer Shriram Neupane reported what appeared to be voices or echoes from deeper inside the tunnel. “We are expecting some good news,” Neupane had said on Monday as teams pushed towards the powerhouse. Ruling Rastriya Swatantra Party MP and engineer Sagar Dhakal, who worked alongside rescue teams for several days, said, “I tried my best as an MP, engineer, Nepali and a normal human being, leaving no stone unturned. I carried the heavy load where it was necessary to carry it, and I was the labourer where it was necessary to be.”At Upper Trishuli-1, a joint Nepal Army and project team recovered five bodies from the tunnel during ongoing search operations on Wednesday. Rasuwa assistant chief district officer Druba Prasad Adhikari said, “The bodies were found in the Audit-3 tunnel of by a joint team from Nepali Army and the hydropower project during an ongoing search and rescue operation.”
