A 'Miracle' After the Funeral... After Hearing Cries and Clearing Mud, "She's Alive"

Nepalese Woman in Her 60s Rescued After Ten Days Missing
Police Dramatically Save Her After Hearing Cries from the Debris

A woman in her 60s, whose family even held a "doll funeral" for her after she went missing in the massive flood in Nepal, has been miraculously rescued after ten days.

Chandika Shrestha (64), who went missing in the massive flood in Nepal on the 26th of last month, has been rescued after ten days. Photo captured from X (formerly Twitter)

According to Nepal's National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA) and local media, including the Kathmandu Post, Chandika Shrestha (64), who lived in Betrawati, an old market town in the Nuwakot region, was rescued the previous day from under the wreckage of her collapsed home.

On the morning of the rescue, Nepal's Armed Police Force heard faint cries coming from the debris. The police immediately began scooping out mud, broke a window, and ventured into the rubble. Shrestha, after being rescued, was airlifted by a Nepal Army helicopter to a hospital in the capital, Kathmandu, where she is currently receiving inpatient treatment. Deputy Police Chief Iqbal Hawari told AFP, "Police officers who had been deployed to restore a nearby road were clearing the site when they rescued the woman. She was transported by military helicopter to a hospital in Kathmandu for treatment."

On the eighth day after her disappearance, September 2, her family conducted a "doll funeral," weaving a doll from sacred grass called kush that is used in Hindu rituals and then cremating the doll in place of a body. They had judged that, with more than a week passed since she went missing, the golden time for survival had ended.

Chandika Shrestha (64), who went missing due to the massive flood in Nepal on the 26th of last month, has been rescued after ten days. Photo from X (formerly Twitter).

In Hindu and Buddhist cultural regions, including Nepal, there is a belief that the deceased cannot attain salvation if a funeral is not held. As a result, some Nepalese who lost family members in this massive flood have been conducting doll funerals after a week has passed since the disaster. Media reports indicate that temples holding these funeral rites are crowded with families of the missing, making it difficult to find space for ceremonies.

As of the 5th, the death toll from the recent Nepal flood has reached 1,375. The number of missing persons is estimated at around 5,500. Specifically, within Nepal, there are an estimated 1,331 deaths and about 5,000 missing persons, while in China, the estimated death toll is 31, with 531 people reported missing.

With ongoing rescues, Nepalese authorities believe there may be additional survivors inside the hydropower plant tunnels. They are accelerating the search for survivors in cooperation with rescue teams from various countries, including South Korea, that have been dispatched to assist. The Nepalese government previously announced the possibility that more than 100 workers may be alive inside the hydropower plant tunnels.

A scene of holding a funeral by making a doll instead of a corpse at a temple in Nepal. Photo by AP Yonhap News

With Shrestha's rescue, a total of four missing persons have been found alive over the past two days. Previously, South Korea's Korea Disaster Relief Team (KDRT) rescued a Chinese worker that day at the 225-meter point inside the tunnel at the Upper Trishuli-1 Hydropower Plant site.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.