Local authorities are coordinating with officials from bordering Indian districts to recover the bodies of those missing in the Simaltal accident, where a landslide swept two buses into the Trishuli River last Friday.

The search is being conducted in coordination with authorities of the Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar after some bodies of the missing persons were found on Narayani riverbanks near the Indian border.

Nepali authorities believe the flooded river might have taken the bodies to India.

Chief District Officer (CDO) of Chitwan Indradev Yadav said they are coordinating with the district magistrates of Maharajgunj in Uttar Pradesh and West Champaran in Bihar. Both magistrates have been requested to inform Nepali authorities if they find any bodies in the river, but no bodies have been located yet.

Although the CDO has the authority to coordinate with the bordering Indian districts, formal communication must go through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Meanwhile, rescuers have deployed sonar cameras to search for the missing people and the wreckage of the two buses. These cameras can help the rescue teams in locating the buses and the victims underwater. A technical team, including engineers from the Armed Police Force Headquarters, has arrived at the incident site to search for the missing people.

According to the Superintendent of Police Janak Puri at the Disaster Management Training School at Kurintar, they deployed new high-tech cameras on Monday.

SP Puri said the new cameras can fetch data and capture pictures from depths up to 300 metres.

“The sonar cameras used earlier could only detect whether there was an object in the water. But the current cameras provide detailed shape of the object and are effective even in murky conditions,” he said.

However, operating the motorboat is difficult when the water current is very strong, he said, adding that they would search as far as Golaghat, 50 km downstream from the incident site.

The rescue team searched for two kilometres downstream on Monday, but could not locate anything.

APF Sub Inspector Ramesh Bahadur Thapa, who has spent 12 years as a rescue diver in Kurintar, has been tirelessly searching for the missing passengers and buses.

“We don’t have a problem with the depth of the river. However, since the water is very murky, visibility is almost zero. With such strong water currents, the risk is also heightened,” said Thapa. He said that despite these challenges, the divers are giving continuity to their search.

According to Chitwan CDO Yadav, 12 divers from the Armed Police Force and five from the Nepal Army have been deployed for the search.

So far, 17 bodies have been found in different places and the identities of 10 bodies have been ascertained.

A task force formed by the Ministry of Home Affairs on Monday is scheduled to visit the accident site on Wednesday.

Sixty-two people went missing after two passenger buses were swept away by a mudslide into the rain-swollen Trishuli River near Simaltal along the Narayanghat-Mugling road section at around 3:30am on Friday.