Nepal floods: How DNA identification of bodies works

What the report says

Al Jazeera reports that Nepali authorities are using DNA testing to identify bodies after devastating floods and landslides triggered by a glacial collapse near Langtang Lirung in Nepal and Tibet. More than 1,270 people were reported dead and more than 4,700 missing as officials faced overflowing morgues and severe difficulty in identifying remains found after prolonged exposure to water and decomposition.

The article says police are asking first-degree relatives of the missing, including those overseas in the case of foreign nationals, to provide blood samples for comparison. Those samples are being processed at Nepal’s police forensic lab and the Nepal Academy of Science and Technology. Al Jazeera notes that in disaster situations, DNA can be extracted from blood, tissue, bone or teeth, and that identification is often combined with fingerprints and dental records when available.

The piece explains that the approach follows Interpol’s disaster victim identification framework, in which specialists compare DNA from human remains with samples from family members or personal items. A match can confirm identity when other methods are not possible. Al Jazeera also reports that forensic support has come from India and China to speed up analysis in Nepal. The process matters because many victims cannot be visually identified after floods, making DNA one of the most reliable tools for returning names to the dead.