Photos show a family in Nepal bid farewell, as other flood victims are buried in unmarked graves - AP News

**Photos show a family in Nepal bid farewell, as other flood victims are buried in unmarked graves**

*Kathmandu, Nepal –* The aftermath of the monsoon‑season flash floods that swept through Nepal’s central and eastern hills last week is starkly captured in a series of haunting photographs released by local media. One image shows a grieving family standing on a makeshift platform, waving goodbye to a relative whose body was later interred in an unmarked grave on a slope still scarred by mud. Across the valley, dozens of similar graves have been hastily dug by volunteers and relief workers, a testament to the sheer scale of loss: official tallies put the death toll at more than 1,000, with many more missing.

Rescue teams from Nepal, India and a coalition of international NGOs have been combing through the debris‑laden terrain for survivors and evidence of further casualties. The Indian National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) deployed a specialized tunnel‑rescue unit to the Chilime and Langtang hydropower sites, where landslides triggered by the floods have trapped workers and damaged critical infrastructure. Meanwhile, the U.S. Geological Survey’s 2026 report on the Nepal Debris Avalanche and Flash Flood attributes the unprecedented volume of runoff to a combination of intense rainfall, rapid snowmelt, and destabilized slopes—factors amplified by climate change.

In the diplomatic arena, Nepal’s government has shifted its appeal from immediate humanitarian aid to long‑term climate compensation, accusing neighboring India, the United States and China of contributing to the disaster through greenhouse‑gas emissions and inadequate trans‑boundary water management. While the nations have pledged technical assistance, Kathmandu insists that responsibility lies in addressing the root causes of extreme weather events, urging a formal international mechanism for climate‑related loss and damage. As families continue to mourn and rescue operations press on, the flood’s legacy is poised to reshape both Nepal’s disaster‑response policies and its broader climate‑justice agenda.