CHITWAN, Jan 26: Authorities have discovered a human skeleton inside the wreckage of a Ganapati Deluxe bus that went missing after being swept into the Trishuli River by a landslide at Simaltal in Chitwan around one and a half years ago.
The remains were found on the 16th day of excavation while recovering the bus, which had been buried under sand along the bank of the Trishuli River at Dondrangbesi, Ambukhaireni Rural Municipality–5 in Tanahun district.
The search operation began after a local resident spotted parts of a vehicle while fishing along the riverbank on January 11 and alerted the police. From the same day, separate teams from Nepal Police and the Armed Police Force attempted to remove the sand manually using shovels. When it proved impossible to retrieve the bus through manpower alone, excavation work was intensified with the help of chain pulley equipment provided by Tanahun-based Milan Chainpulley Company.
Bus recovered in Trishuli confirmed as Ganapati Deluxe swept aw...
Assistant Chief District Officer of Tanahun, Deepak Regmi, confirmed that a human skeleton was found inside the bus wreckage. “After prolonged efforts failed to recover the bus intact, it was dismantled during extraction. A human skeleton was found inside one compartment of the front section of the bus,” Regmi said, adding that a medical team, along with police personnel from Chitwan, was preparing to take the remains for examination.
So far, the front portion of the bus has been recovered, while efforts are ongoing to retrieve the rear section. Based on the engine and chassis numbers, authorities have confirmed that the recovered bus is indeed the Ganapati Deluxe involved in the Simaltal accident.
On the morning of July 12, 2024, a massive landslide accompanied by debris struck Simaltal in Bharatpur Metropolitan City–29, Chitwan, sweeping the Ganapati Deluxe bus travelling from Kathmandu to Gaur and the Angel Deluxe bus heading from Birgunj to Kathmandu into the Trishuli River.
A total of 65 passengers were on board the two buses. Only three managed to survive by swimming to safety, while the remaining passengers and both buses went missing in the river. Despite prolonged search efforts using modern technology, the whereabouts of the buses had remained unknown until now.
