Bharatpur, Chitwan: Inside, preparations are underway to store bodies. Outside, a crowd of relatives and family members waits in silence. Their eyes are filled with tears, and anxiety is visible on every face.

Among them is Ram Bahadur Moktan of Sindhuli, who has travelled to Bharatpur hoping to find the body of his 31-year-old son, Sanjay, who went missing in the devastating flood in Timure, Rasuwa.

Ram Bahadur arrived at the Body Identification Center at the Industrial Business Development Foundation in Bharatpur-10 on Thursday afternoon after receiving information that bodies recovered from the Narayani River would be brought there for identification.

Sanjay worked as a truck driver in Timure. According to his father, he was playing carrom with friends on Wednesday morning when they noticed floodwater rushing down from above.

“Five people were playing carrom. When they saw the flood coming from about 500 meters above, they all ran. Three survived, but my son and another young man from Madhesh were swept away,” Ram Bahadur said.

Since receiving the news, Ram Bahadur said he has been unable to sleep or eat. An eyewitness from the area told him that people searched for Sanjay for around three hours but could not find him.

With little hope that his son will still be found alive, Ram Bahadur is now waiting for his body so that he can perform the final rites.

“How can I say I am not afraid? Now I have only one percent hope of finding my son safe,” he said.

Ram Bahadur said relatives in Kathmandu and people in Rasuwa are also searching for Sanjay. Sanjay is survived by his father, grandmother, wife and nine-month-old daughter.

Families Waiting for a Last Glimpse

Chintamani Kafle of Bharatpur's Shukranagar has also been waiting anxiously for news of his nephew, Bishnu Bhusal, who has been working in Rasuwa and has been out of contact since Wednesday.

Kafle reached the body identification center after hearing that bodies recovered from the Narayani River would be brought there. He had also searched along the banks of the river.

“I don't know whether he is here or not. I came to see whether he can be identified,” Kafle said, his voice breaking.

He repeatedly said, “I only came to see the body.”

Suman Puri of Ichchhakamana, Chitwan, is also missing in the Rasuwa flood. His uncle, Ram Kumar Puri, was among those waiting at the center.

After two days without contact, the family has little hope of finding Suman alive.

“I just hope the body can be identified. I wish we could take him home and perform the last rites properly,” Ram Kumar said.

Outside the morgue, families of several other missing people were also waiting. They do not know whether their loved ones will be found. Yet they remain there with one final hope—to see the face of their loved one one last time.

135 Bodies Recovered in Chitwan

By Thursday evening, 135 bodies had been recovered in Chitwan, with many found along the Narayani River after being swept downstream from areas including Rasuwa, Nuwakot, Gorkha and Dhading.

Bharatpur Hospital has the capacity to store only 12 bodies. Although Chitwan itself did not record deaths from the flood, bodies began appearing along the riverbanks, overwhelming the hospital's existing morgue capacity.

Following a meeting of the District Security Committee on Thursday morning, a Victim Family Contact and Counseling Center and a Body Identification Center were established at the old building of the Industrial Business Development Foundation in Bharatpur-10.

A temporary cooling hall has been prepared with air conditioners and coolers to preserve the bodies.

Chitwan Superintendent of Police Rameshwor Poudel said the hall can currently accommodate up to 250 bodies. If the number increases, additional rooms will be prepared to expand the facility's capacity to around 500 bodies.

Police said 132 bodies had been recovered within the Chitwan area alone by Thursday. Some bodies were intact, while others had sustained severe damage or consisted only of body parts.

Identification Process Begins With Police Report

Thakur Prasad Kandel, who was searching for relatives missing after the flood, reached Bharatpur Hospital's mortuary on Thursday morning. He did not find the person he was looking for.

He described the condition of some of the recovered bodies as difficult to witness, with some bodies lacking identifiable features.

Most of the recovered bodies are covered in mud, making identification difficult. The bodies are first taken to Bharatpur Hospital's mortuary, where they are cleaned, tagged and placed in body bags. They are then transferred to the cooling hall at the identification center.

According to SP Poudel, relatives can check information about recovered bodies through the Nepal Police website and its social media platforms. Photographs of unidentified bodies will also be displayed at the identification center.

Police have urged families searching for missing people to first file a report at the District Police Office, Chitwan. Once a body is identified, it will be taken for postmortem according to its tag number before being handed over to the family.

Authorities have also arranged free ambulance services to transport identified bodies to their respective homes.

For the families waiting outside the identification center, however, the process is more than an administrative procedure. It is a painful wait between hope and grief—waiting to know whether the person they have been searching for is alive, or whether they must finally say goodbye.