Nepal floods: Families await news as 10 Thane pilgrims remain untraceable

Flash floods leave concrete mixer trucks damaged and buried in mud at Nepal’s hydropower construction site. Pic/ AFP

Hope is turning into anguish for families waiting helplessly for any word from 10 pilgrims from Thane in Maharashtra who remain untraceable after flash floods tore through the Nepal-China border, sweeping away checkpoints and severing communication.

While two tourists returned home safely, the remaining 10 pilgrims, who were on the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra, have been missing since floodwaters struck near the Timure Chinese immigration checkpoint on August 26, destroying local communication infrastructure.

Only Prakash Shantaram Mane and his wife, Pratibha, from Dombivli in the district have returned home safely so far.

Distraught relatives of the missing pilgrims have appealed to authorities for urgent intervention as a week-long communication blackout persists across the affected border areas.

"We have been unable to make contact with them since the time the floods hit the area," Sanjay Patankar, whose brother Satish Vinayak Patankar and sister-in-law Rekha Patankar are among those missing, said on Wednesday.

10 pilgrims remain untraceable

The remaining untraceable pilgrims identified by the district disaster management cell are Samir Mukund Joshi and Aparna Samir Joshi (Naupada), Sunil Sudarshan Subhedar (Dombivli), Sanjay Rajmal Patil and Nalini Sanjay Patil (Kalyan West), Rajanish Raghunath Natu (Thane West), Yashas Bhand (Navi Mumbai), and Abhishek Ghone (Kalyan West).

Thane district authorities said they were coordinating with disaster response teams and tour operators in Nepal to locate the missing pilgrims.

Flash floods devastate Nepal border region

Flash floods, triggered by a collapse or avalanche of ice and rock near the Nepal-Tibet border, devastated towns and villages in northern and central Nepal on August 26.

The Bhotekoshi River, which flows south from the Himalayan border region, carried the floodwaters downstream, sweeping away homes, vehicles, roads and bridges and damaging hydropower projects.

Death toll rises to 1,003 as rescuers search for nearly 4,000 missing

The death toll from the Nepal floods has crossed 1,000, with security forces recovering more bodies from eight districts of the Himalayan country.

Around 4,000 people, including 583 foreigners and several security personnel, remain missing, according to authorities.

Around 4000 people, including 583 foreigners and several security personnel, still remain missing, while nearly 12,000 have been rescued, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA) said.

The disaster also killed 16 people on the Chinese side, while nearly 550 people remain missing in Tibet, according to Chinese media reports.

(With PTI inputs)