After six days of searching hospitals and recovery sites without finding his body, the family of Raj Kumar Shrestha performed his funeral rites on Monday using an effigy of kusha grass.

The 30-year-old from ward 5 of Chautara Sangachokgadhi Municipality, Sindhupalchok, was heading towards Rasuwagadhi, where he worked as a driver, when the Bhotekoshi flood struck. His family said a driver sent them a photograph of a body resembling Raj Kumar on the very day of the devastating flood last Wednesday.

Raj Kumar’s uncle Rabindra Shrestha said relatives travelled to Simtar in Nuwakot to identify and receive the body, but it had already been sent elsewhere.

“The family reached Simtar to collect the body, but it was not there,” said Rabindra. “We were told it had been sent to TU Teaching Hospital. We waited for five days. When the body could not be found, we performed the cremation using a kusha effigy.” Such rites are prescribed by Hindu scriptures when a body cannot be recovered.

The family later found a photograph resembling Raj Kumar in Nepal Police records of missing people and recovered bodies, listed under registration number 350. Yet relatives still do not know where the body is.

“Where did the body under registration number 350 go?” asked Raj Kumar’s relative Jeeban Shrestha. “Police in Nuwakot say they sent it, while the TU Teaching Hospital says it never arrived. So where has it disappeared?”

Police have urged families not to rush to conclusions before formal identification, saying some bodies may require DNA testing. Sindhupalchok police chief Kaji Kumar Acharya said the government had called for DNA samples.

“The government has called for DNA testing. That is also the legal procedure,” said Acharya. “There are also our traditional practices.”

Raj Kumar had already experienced a devastating loss. His mother died in the 2015 earthquake while she was at an oil mill, according to his uncle. The family performed his seventh-day rites on Tuesday, despite having no confirmation of his body.

The Shresthas’ ordeal mirrors that of hundreds of families in Sindhupalchok and other flood-hit districts. Relatives have been moving between hospitals and waiting at rescue centres in the hope of finding their loved ones. Only a small proportion of bodies recovered after August 26 had been identified, with authorities relying on DNA testing as searches continue downstream.

The scale of the tragedy remains fluid. The Sindhupalchok Chamber of Commerce and Industry said the number of people from the district reported missing had reached 239, while only two bodies from that list had been recovered.

Among those still missing is Anjan Thapa of ward 8 of Balephi Rural Municipality. His sister Laxmi Thapa Adhikari said the family had not heard from him since the flood.

“When we suddenly saw his Facebook account active today, our hope returned,” she said. “We are pleading for help to trace his mobile location.”

Raju Lama, ward 1 chairman of Bhotekoshi Rural Municipality (Sindhupalchok), is also missing, along with 20 people from his ward. Twenty-seven people from ward 2 of the rural municipality have been reported missing. Ward chair Kumar Shrestha said those missing include traders and cargo container workers serving pilgrims to Kailash Manasarovar.

“Since the news of our ward chair’s disappearance, his family and the entire Bhotekoshi Rural Municipality are in mourning,” said Shrestha.

The flood struck Rasuwagadhi on August 26 after an avalanche blocked the Lhende tributary, sending a tsunami-like surge of water through Timure and downstream settlements without warning.

For families such as the Shresthas, the disaster has left them with a painful choice: continue waiting for a loved one who may still be found, or perform a funeral without certainty. Many remain caught between hope and mourning as searches continue across affected districts and hospitals.