Sägar Shrestha, director of disaster and crisis management at the Nepal Red Cross Society, speaks to the Hankyoreh on Aug. 30, 2026. (Yoon Yeun-jung/Hankyoreh))
Recovering the dead with dignity has become one of the biggest challenges facing Nepal after devastating floods and landslides swept away entire communities, according to Sägar Shrestha, 39, director of disaster and crisis management at the Nepal Red Cross Society (NRCS). Nearly 3,000 bodies have been recovered, overwhelming the country’s stockpile of about 2,000 body bags, he told the Hankyoreh in a video interview Sunday.“Just as water has no passport, disasters have no borders,” he said. “This is not only the responsibility of Nepal; this is the responsibility of China and India also.”The massive floods that struck Nepal and Tibet on Aug. 26, killing at least 900 people and leaving more than 4,000 missing, are the second major disaster Shrestha has helped respond to.Shrestha, who is receiving reports from colleagues deployed to the disaster zone from the NRCS headquarters in Kathmandu, said that buildings, villages and farmland cultivated for generations have all been swept away, leaving the area “like a desert or no-man’s-land.”The landscape he’d seen on a visit just a month ago had vanished completely, giving the impression that there had been “no civilization” there at all.
