Bharatpur, Nepal: Flood Aftermath Forces Air Travel Surge and Mounting Death Toll

Nepal's Chitwan district continues to reel from catastrophic floods originating near the Tibetan border. With the Prithvi Highway blocked by landslides and subsidence at Krishnabhir, Bharatpur Airport has become the critical link between the region and Kathmandu, while Bharatpur Hospital grapples with identifying hundreds of victims whose bodies were carried downstream.

🤝 Highway Blockage Doubles Bharatpur Flights

Passenger demand on the Bharatpur-Kathmandu air route has surged dramatically following the blockage of the Prithvi Highway at Krishnabhir, where road subsidence has left the key road link damaged and impassable. Buddha Air is currently the sole airline operating flights between Bharatpur and Kathmandu. Under normal conditions the airline runs five flights daily on the route. As highway access deteriorated through the monsoon, Buddha Air scaled up operations to as many as 11 flights per day depending on demand. The airline deploys ATR 72 aircraft on the route; the planes typically carry between 65 and 70 passengers in the Kathmandu-to-Bharatpur direction and around 50 passengers in the reverse direction. Though the ATR 72 seats 72 passengers, the relatively short runway at Bharatpur Airport means the aircraft cannot operate at full payload capacity. According to Bhakta Bahadur Basnet, head of Buddha Air's Bharatpur office, travellers blocked by the Krishnabhir closure can take an alternative route via Makwanpur, but ongoing monsoon conditions have made flying the preferred choice for many. Demand is also coming from residents of neighbouring districts — Nawalparasi, Gorkha, Tanahun, Lamjung and Makwanpur — who are travelling to Bharatpur Airport to catch flights. Buddha Air says it will continue increasing the number of daily departures as needed to accommodate stranded passengers. [2]

Authorities Begin Burying Unidentified Flood Victims

France 24 dispatched a team to Bharatpur, Nepal's Chitwan district, to document the ongoing humanitarian crisis in the wake of devastating floods that struck the country several days earlier. The international broadcaster reports that in Bharatpur, authorities have begun the somber task of burying unidentified bodies — a measure forced by the sheer volume of flood victims and the rapid decomposition of remains in the hot and humid monsoon conditions. The death toll across Nepal continues to rise as fresh bodies are recovered daily. Many of those who perished remain impossible to identify, their features and documents destroyed by the force of floodwaters that carried them hundreds of kilometres from the original disaster zone near the Tibetan border. France 24 notes that several days after the initial floods, a significant proportion of recovered remains are already in an advanced state of decomposition, creating both a public health concern and an acute challenge for forensic identification teams. Local officials in Bharatpur have been forced to proceed with burials even as identification work continues, in order to manage the growing volume of unprocessed remains. The footage captured by France 24 illustrates the scale and severity of the ongoing crisis for Nepal's Chitwan region, and the grim scenes stand as a testament to the catastrophic human cost of the flooding. [4]

Bharatpur Doctor Examines Over 200 Flood Victims

Reporting from Chitwan's Bharatpur Hospital, the Korea Times profiles Dr. Arbin Shakya, who spent six consecutive days at the facility examining flood victims' bodies and collecting DNA samples. Over that period Shakya handled more than 200 bodies brought to the hospital from across Chitwan's low-lying plains after floodwaters swept them downstream from the disaster zone near the Tibetan border, approximately 200 kilometres away. The physical condition of the remains was severe. Most consisted of only an arm, a leg or a torso, bearing numerous wounds from impact with rocks, Shakya told the newspaper. Prolonged submersion combined with hot monsoon weather had left most bodies in an advanced state of decomposition, compounding the emotional and physical toll on hospital staff. Approximately 80 bodies remained at Bharatpur Hospital at the time of the interview, with Shakya expecting DNA collection to be completed within a day or two. The doctor described the work as emotionally exhausting, saying he was conflicted between the relief of helping families find their loved ones and the grief of delivering news of death. Despite the grim circumstances, Shakya offered cautious hope to families of Korean nationals still unaccounted for: he said he had not observed anyone who appeared to be Korean among the more than 200 bodies he examined. Families of the missing continued to gather at the hospital, scanning photographs of recovered victims in hopes of identification. [10]

Sources: [2] myRepublica · [4] France 24 · [10] The Korea Times