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Recovering bodies is only part of the challenge. Post-mortem and legal identification procedures have been completed for 1,113 of the recovered bodies, but only 95 have actually been returned to grieving families. To speed the process, authorities have published details of 911 unidentified bodies on the Nepal Police website.

More than 11,000 people have been pulled to safety so far in flood-hit Nepal. Only 279 workers have been pulled out of hydropower project sites in the ongoing rescue and relief operations. As many as 639 people are said to be still stuck at those sites.

If the 28-member group from southern India had reached Syabrubesi bridge, all of them would have lost their lives because the bridge was washed away in the devastating floods.

Among the missing are dozens of Americans, at least 41 Australians and other foreign nationals — including trekkers, pilgrims and tour groups who were in the region when the disaster struck. Nearly 3,000 stranded people, including more than 160 foreigners, have so far been pulled to safety by rescue teams.

The precautionary pause in rescue work was sparked by a sudden overflow from a lake on the Nepal-China border, alarming Nepali authorities. Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported that the upstream lake was no longer an imminent hazard.