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Volunteers Burn Nepal’s Unclaimed Bodies as Death Toll Rises

4 minute read

The crematory pyres outside the revered Pashupatinath Temple in Kathmandu spew grey-white smoke into the bright sun of Friday afternoon. Below, local women wade into the shallows of the revered Bagwati, splashing water on their arms to wash and cool down. At the water’s edge, families gather to bid goodbye to their loved ones. But six days after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake rattled this landlocked nation, officials are struggling to figure out where to store their unclaimed dead.

“We just do not have enough space in the refrigerators” says Bishnu Joshi, an officer with the municipal government in Kathmandu. Wearing a black athletic jacket and matching face mask, Joshi directs the large flatbed trucks lined with the dead, swarmed by flies. After entering the temple compound, the trucks must drive down a crude, mud-worn slope and into the Bhagwati River, through the shallows, and onto the grassy shoal at the river’s center. There, team of volunteers, wearing plain clothes, latex gloves, and medical masks, climb into the flatbed, lifting, dragging or pushing the bodies, wooden with rigor mortis, onto waiting stretchers for deposit atop hastily arranged funeral pyres.

Unlike the formal cremation ceremony, familiar to the thousands of visitors who pass through Pashupatinath each year, there was no pomp or circumstance to this afternoon’s procedure. The unclothed and uncovered bodies are simply tipped off the stretcher, two bodies to each pile, and set alight by the young volunteers as a small but vocal crowd looked on.

These bodies are the unclaimed dead housed at Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital in Kathmandu. As the death toll has passed 5,500, the university is running out of areas to store the bodies.

Volunteers help move the bodies. “I just wanted to help this week,” said Ramos Tamang, an 18-year-old college student who studies management. As droplets of sweat dripped from his forehead to the edge of his medical mask, the smell of decomposed matter wafted up from his latex gloves. Tamang describes the job as a “horror”, but it is one he’s committed to. His uncle and grandfather were killed last weekend when the family home, in the town of Nuwakot, collapsed. With his friend, Suhesh Kattel, 17, Ramos has joined one of many groups distributing aid and providing assistance in the aftermath of the disaster.

Kattel was similarly moved after visiting his friend’s father, who had his hand amputated due to injuries sustained during the earthquake. “My family wasn’t a victim of this earthquake,” Kattel told TIME, looking beyond the river to the opposite bank where families wait for their loved one’s turn on the cremation pyre. “I feel so sorry for all these families.”

Witness the Aftermath of Nepal's Devastating Earthquake

A Nepali boy stands amidst earthquake damage in the ancient city of Bhaktapur in the Kathmandu Valley on April. 28, 2015. Nepal had a severe earthquake on April 25th. Photo by Adam Ferguson for Time
A Nepalese boy stands amid earthquake damage in the ancient city of Bhaktapur in the Kathmandu Valley, April 28, 2015, three days after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake had hit the country. Adam Ferguson for TIME
A Nepali man carries recovered belongings through the street in the ancient city of Bhaktapur in the Kathmandu Valley on April. 28, 2015. Nepal had a severe earthquake on April 25th. Photo by Adam Ferguson for Time
A Nepalese man carries recovered belongings through the streets of Bhaktapur in the Kathmandu Valley, April. 28, 2015. Adam Ferguson for TIME
People atop damaged buildings in Durbar Square, Kathmandu, Nepal on April. 26, 2015. The historic Durbar Square, a UNESCO world heritage site, was severely damaged in an earthquake on April 25th. Photo by Adam Ferguson for Time
People stand on top of a damaged building in Durbar Square in Kathmandu, April 26, 2015. The historic Durbar Square, a UNESCO world heritage site, was severely damaged in the earthquake.Adam Ferguson for TIME
Hindu Nepali women mourn the loss of four family members who were killed in the earthquake on April 25th, at the site of funeral pyres on the river Kathmandu on April. 28, 2015. Photo by Adam Ferguson for Time
A group of Hindu Nepalese women mourn the loss of four family members who were killed in the earthquake at the site of funeral pyres on the river of Kathmandu, April 28, 2015. Adam Ferguson for TIME
A crowd watches Indian forces excavating collapsed apartments looking for bodies and survivors of Saturdays Earthquake, in Kathmandu, Nepal on April. 27, 2015. Nepal had a severe earthquake on April 25th. Photo by Adam Ferguson for Time
A crowd watches Indian forces excavating collapsed apartments, looking for bodies and survivors in Kathmandu, April 27, 2015. Adam Ferguson for TIME
Nepali forces excavate the Dharahara tower in Kathmandu, Nepal on April. 26, 2015. This as well as historic Durbar Square, both UNESCO world heritage sites, were severely damaged in an earthquake on April 25th. Photo by Adam Ferguson for Time
Nepalese forces excavate the Dharahara tower in Kathmandu, April 26, 2015. The building, a UNESCO world heritage site, was severely damaged in the earthquake. Adam Ferguson for TIME
Nepali people flee buildings during an aftershock in Kathmandu, Nepal on April. 27, 2015. Nepal had a severe earthquake on April 25th. Photo by Adam Ferguson for Time
Nepalese people flee buildings during an aftershock in Kathmandu, April 27, 2015. Adam Ferguson for TIME
Indian and Nepali forces attempt to identify a body after it was recovered from a collapsed restaurant in Kathmandu, Nepal on April. 27, 2015. Nepal had a severe earthquake on April 25th. Photo by Adam Ferguson for Time
Indian and Nepalese forces attempt to identify a body after it was recovered from a collapsed restaurant in Kathmandu, April 27, 2015.Adam Ferguson for TIME
A Hindu Nepali man tends to a funeral pyre built for a person killed in the earthquake in Nepal, on the river in Kathmandu, Nepal on April. 27, 2015. Nepal had a severe earthquake on April 25th. Photo by Adam Ferguson for Time
A Hindu Nepalese man tends to a funeral pyre built for a person killed in the earthquake, on the river in Kathmandu, April 27, 2015. Adam Ferguson for TIME
Nepali forces excavate the Dharahara tower in Kathmandu, Nepal on April. 26, 2015. This as well as historic Durbar Square, both UNESCO world heritage sites, were severely damaged in an earthquake on April 25th. Photo by Adam Ferguson for Time
Nepalese forces excavate the Dharahara tower in Kathmandu, April. 26, 2015. Adam Ferguson for TIME
Nepali forces clear fallen bamboo from ruins in Durbar Square, Kathmandu, Nepal on April. 26, 2015. The historic Durbar Square, a UNESCO world heritage site, was severely damaged in an earthquake on April 25th. Photo by Adam Ferguson for Time
Nepalese forces clear fallen bamboo from ruins in Durbar Square, Kathmandu, April 26, 2015. Adam Ferguson for TIME
Nepali children walk through the street in the ancient city of Bhaktapur in the Kathmandu Valley on April. 28, 2015. Nepal had a severe earthquake on April 25th. Photo by Adam Ferguson for Time
Nepalese children walk through the street in the ancient city of Bhaktapur, in the Kathmandu Valley, April 28, 2015. Adam Ferguson for TIME
Workers repair power lines in Kathmandu, Nepal on April. 28, 2015. Nepal had a severe earthquake on April 25th. Photo by Adam Ferguson for Time
Workers repair power lines in Kathmandu, April 28, 2015. Adam Ferguson for TIME
Indian and Nepali forces excavate a body from collapsed apartments in Kathmandu, Nepal on April. 27, 2015. Nepal had a severe earthquake on April 25th. Photo by Adam Ferguson for Time
Indian and Nepalese forces excavate a body from collapsed apartments in Kathmandu, April 27, 2015. Adam Ferguson for TIME
Nepalis retrieve belongings from earthquake damaged homes in the ancient city of Bhaktapur in the Kathmandu Valley on April 29, 2015. Nepal had a severe earthquake on April 25th. Photo by Adam Ferguson for Time
Nepalese people retrieve belongings from damaged homes in Bhaktapur, Kathmandu Valley, April 29, 2015. Adam Ferguson for TIME
Nepal_Earthquake_2015_03236.JPG
Nepalese women mourn relatives lost in the earthquake in Bhaktapur, in the Kathmandu Valley, April 29, 2015. Adam Ferguson for TIME
Nepal_Earthquake_2015_03113.JPG
People walk through the damaged streets in the ancient city of Bhaktapur, Kathmandu Valley, April 29, 2015. Adam Ferguson for TIME
A displaced Nepali family take shelter in a tent in a park in Kathmandu, Nepal on April. 27, 2015. Nepal had a severe earthquake on April 25th. Photo by Adam Ferguson for Time
A displaced Nepalese family takes shelter in a tent in a Kathmandu park, April 27, 2015. Adam Ferguson for TIME
A mother looks at her son who was injured in the April 25th earthquake, at the Nepal and India Trauma Centre in Kathmandu, Nepal on April. 29, 2015. Photo by Adam Ferguson for Time
A mother looks at her son who was injured in the earthquake, at the Nepal and India Trauma Center in Kathmandu, April 29, 2015.Adam Ferguson for TIME
Earthquake, Kathmandu, Nepal
Emergency rescue workers clear debris and search for survivors in Katmandu, April 27, 2015. Adam Ferguson for TIME
A body recovered from a collapsed restaurant in Kathmandu, Nepal on April. 27, 2015. Nepal had a severe earthquake on April 25th. Photo by Adam Ferguson for Time
A body recovered from a collapsed restaurant in Kathmandu, April 27, 2015. Adam Ferguson for TIME
A Nepali man tends to a funeral pyre built for a person killed in the earthquake in Nepal, on the river in Kathmandu, Nepal on April. 28, 2015. Nepal had a severe earthquake on April 25th. Photo by Adam Ferguson for Time
A Nepalese man tends to a funeral pyre built for a person killed in the earthquake, on the river in Kathmandu, April 28, 2015. Adam Ferguson for TIME
A funeral pyre built for a person killed in the earthquake in Nepal, on the river in Kathmandu, Nepal on April. 27, 2015. Nepal had a severe earthquake on April 25th. Photo by Adam Ferguson for Time
A funeral pyre built for a person killed in the earthquake, on the river in Kathmandu, April 27, 2015. Adam Ferguson for TIME

Down on the shoal, young men like Kattel and Tamang are joined by 13 volunteers from the Khawalung Monastery. The monastery’s students, like Tashi,19, have supplied all volunteers with latex gloves as protection while moving the bodies. The students, dressed in sleeveless red robes and bright yellow vests, have matching yellow baseball caps.

“I am pretty scared of the dead bodies,” says Tashi, his arms, legs and face still wet after washing up after the day. They had disposed of 20 bodies in just over 30 minutes, but through the hottest time of the day. Asked why he had decided to volunteer, particularly given his apprehension, he said he was eager to find some way he could help.

Officials expect the death toll to climb to 6,000 as rescue and relief teams move through the countryside. According to an official in the forensic unit at Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital contacted Friday evening, there are 33 unclaimed bodies in the morgue, 26 have yet to be identified, and the hospital is adding an average of 10 bodies to the morgue each day.

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