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Drones are being used to supply food and other essentials to a village in Panauti Municipality-12 of Kavre following the disruption of rural roads due to incessant rain last week. 

An organization namely Hami Team Nepal in collaboration with Airlift Technology has started supplying food items, including rice to Magargaun.

Team Nepal's volunteer Parikshyan Humagain said some quantities of rice and materials have been sent to Magargaun on Sunday.

Due to geographical remoteness and blockage of rural roads, the organization has provided relief materials to 85 families of the village with the help of drones.

Humagain shared that an alternative measure has been used to send food stuffs after receiving information that relief materials were needed for 85 families of the floods and landslides that hit the village.

Today, relief materials including rice, solar lights, salt, oil, spices, sanitary pads, lactogen for children will be sent through drones, Humagain said.

Drones have been flown from Bhumidanda of ward 12 as the road leading to the village from Panauti Bazaar has been damaged.

Humagain, also a social activist, said drones can transport up to 65 kilograms of food items at a time. "If the air flow is normal, relief can be sent up to 65 kg, otherwise we will send relief only 20 kg at a time," he said.

The organization has planned to send food items through drones to such places on priority basis as there are reports of similar situations elsewhere.

Humagain said that the data of the settlements and households without road connectivity has been collected for this purpose.

The death toll from floods and landslides in Kavre has so far reached 77. At least 75 people were injured in the incident. This is 31.56 per cent of the country's deaths due to last week's disaster. According to the data, 244 people have lost their lives due to floods and landslides across the country so far.

According to the District Police Office, Dhulikhel, 33 women, 28 men, nine boys and seven girls died in Kavre alone.

A total of 77 people including a foreign national have died and 75 people were injured in the recent flash floods in Kavre.

According to the District Police Office, five people are still missing.

The deceased include 33 women, 28 men, nine minor boys and seven minor girls.

Eighteen people including eight women lost their lives in Panauti Municipality while eight women, three men and one child died in Temal Rural Municipality.

Six women, two men, one boy and three girls died in Roshi Rural Municipality, eight men, three women and one child died in Bethanchowk while seven people including three women died in Mandandeupur.

Meanwhile, Assistant Chief District Officer Subas Paudel said that the search for the missing persons is underway while relief support is being provided to the affected families.

The number of people, who lost their lives in floods and landslides in Kavre, has reached 54.

Police Inspector Dinesh Bahadur Kunwar of the District Police Office, Kavre said that 54 people died in the floods and landslides in Temal, Roshi, Panauti and Banepa among other places of Kavre.

Among the deceased, the identities of 38 have been ascertained.

Police said that 337 people have been rescued by a Nepal Army helicopter from BP Highway and other places and 3, 226 by other means till this morning.

Police have arrested four persons for allegedly cutting down a tree of precious Bodhichitta (Buddhachitta) at Roshi Rural Municipality-5, Nagbeli in Kavrepalanchowk district.

The arrestees have been identified as Prabhat Tamang, Shyam Krishna Mainali, Man Bahadur Tamang and Durga Lal Tamang, spokesperson at the District Police Office, Dhulikhel, DSP Raj Kumar Shrestha informed.

The group had cut down a tree of Bodhichitta in the Nagbeli-based garden of Thakurani Tamang on Thursday night with explosives.

Tamang said this year the Bodhichitta grain grown on the particular tree was to be sold at Rs 30 million this year. She had already received an advance for this.

According to her, a group of around 20 people armed with weapons cut the Bodhichitta tree at around 1 am on Thursday.

Mainali and Durga Lal were arrested from Banepa of Kavrepalanchowk on Sunday, while Prabhat was arrested from Banasthali of Kathmandu on Saturday and Man Bahadur was arrested on the same day the tree was cut down, said DSP Shrestha.

According to the police, four socket bombs were planted on the door and courtyard of the house after the tree of Tamang was cut down.

Dhulikhel-based Kalijung Battalion of the Nepal Army had defused the bomb. A search is on for others involved in the incident, police said.

Meanwhile, victim Thakurani lodged a complaint at the District Police Office on Sunday against eight persons, including four arrested. The fruit grown on the tree was looted four years ago. Police suspected that the group that cut trees may have looted the fruit at that time.

The Bodhichita-made garland has special religious and cultural importance in the Tamang community and Tibetan and Chinese society.