The reason behind not finding the identity of these individuals is because most of them have been living on the streets for a long time, and don’t have any known relatives in that area. “We sometimes find generic information like their first name, which is not enough for us to determine their identities,” says Pokharel.
Basnet adds that there are some cases when people migrate to another district, with no one searching for them either, so the identification becomes difficult. “Some are also found to be mentally unstable, which is why no one knows who they are and where they have come from,” he says. Still, there are a few protocols that Nepal Police follows in order to identify and find some relatives of the dead, with the assistance of the Department of Forensic Medicine, in the district where the body was found. Once the body is sent for post-mortem, the forensic department first identifies the cause of death, while the police circulates images of the body within its department to check if they have been listed as one of the missing persons in the past. “In most cases, there is no registration,” says Pokharel. The forensic department keeps a record of the body’s estimated age, sex, height, birthmarks or any other distinct feature that might make the identification easier. They take photographs of the body, clothes, and other personal belongings, as well as a sample of their teeth or a bone in case someone is looking to get the DNA tested. All this is done following the Unidentified and Unclaimed Bodies Management Guideline, 2021, issued by the government. The guideline also has a protocol where some of these bodies can be sent to medical colleges for the purpose of studying and examination, if they haven’t been claimed within the timeframe issued on it. According to Dr Govinda Kumar Chaudhary, the head of department for the Department of Forensic Medicine, Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH), every year, around 30-40 bodies are sent to various medical colleges around Nepal, that too only from the forensic department at TUTH. Chaudhary further mentions that the main causes of death found so far are pneumonia and liver failure. “Most people we have encountered have died because of cold weather, or alcoholism, and are above the age of 50,” he says. The number of deaths is comparatively higher during the winter season. The dead bodies are kept in the morgue for 35 days to three months, before they are sent out for incineration at the Pashupati Electric Crematorium. Although Chaudhary believes there aren’t as many unclaimed bodies these days as before, there is still a problem of not having enough space at the morgue to store the dead bodies, especially outside the valley. Currently, TUTH is the only hospital that can accommodate up to 150 corpses at a time. The number is quite less for other forensic departments outside Kathmandu. Dr Srijana Kunwar, associate professor at Department of Forensic Medicine, Patan Hospital, mentions that they can accommodate only 10 bodies. The government, however, has decided to allocate more budget in order to expand the space. Because of this issue, the unclaimed bodies need to get cremated as quickly as possible. For the ones found in other districts, Pokharel mentions that the bodies can only be kept at the morgue for around 7-10 days, in order to make space for the new ones that arrive. “This is a huge problem since most bodies get cremated before they are identified,” adds Basnet. There are some rare instances where the individuals are identified, but don’t have any known relatives to claim their bodies. Basnet mentions that, in several cases, families have abandoned their loved ones after their demise at the hospital, since they don’t have money to pay for the funeral. “They end up spending all their money in treatment, and performing the last rites at the Pashupati Aryaghat costs around Rs 18,000 which they cannot afford,” he adds. People who pass away during medical treatment or from a natural cause aren’t sent for post-mortem. They are taken to the Pashupati Electric Crematorium either by the Nepal Police or Basnet and his team. Besides the ones handed over to Basnet, the Nepal Police is in charge of the incineration. Before the establishment of Pashupati Electric Crematorium in 2016, the bodies used to be cremated at the Aryaghat in Pashupati, which Rewati Raman Adhikari, spokesperson, Pashupati Area Development Fund, says wasn’t a feasible solution. “Factoring in the cost, the pollution it creates, and the number of bodies that arrive each day, electrical incineration is definitely the more viable option,” he adds. The crematorium has three incineration chambers, out of which only one is currently functional, and the rest are under maintenance. The crematorium charges Rs 4,000 per incineration, and the Nepal government has assigned a budget in order to pay for each cremation. “I pay for the ones I incinerate, whereas Nepal Police depends on that budget,” adds Basnet. Although the process of cremation is going smoothly, Adhikari mentions that there are days where the number of bodies arriving at Pashupati is above 20, in which case cremation becomes difficult. “It mostly happens during accidents with a large number of casualties, and the hospitals need to clear out their cold rooms,” he says. “In that case, the crematorium is compelled to incinerate two bodies at once.” The problem, Basnet believes, behind the unclaimed and unidentified bodies starts with the increasing number of people living on the streets. “As I also work on rehabilitating these individuals, I know for a fact that establishing a proper shelter for these homeless individuals is the only way of decreasing the number of unclaimed bodies in Nepal,” he adds. Pokharel adds that Nepal Police, along with government authorities are doing their best to tackle this problem, and claims that the number of unclaimed bodies have been slowly decreasing in the past years. “It will definitely take some time, but I’m hopeful that this issue will soon have a proper solution,” he says.
