Families travel to Nepal seeking answers after Himalayan floods leave dozens of tourists missing

According to IOL, desperate relatives of missing foreign tourists have travelled to Nepal to search hospitals, morgues and police lists a week after catastrophic flooding struck the Himalayan border region.

Relatives comb Kathmandu for information

According to IOL, families and volunteers have been gathering outside Kathmandu’s tourist police headquarters and visiting hospitals as they try to find loved ones reported missing after the August 26 flood.

“The day I arrived I said, let’s find a helicopter, I’m going to look for her,”

the source quotes Sanjeev Rai, who flew to Nepal after his wife, Jiwan Jyoti, could not be traced while returning from a pilgrimage to Mount Kailash.

According to IOL, Rai said the village of Timure in Rasuwa district, where his wife was when the disaster struck, remains inaccessible and dangerous. He told AFP he had largely given up hope of finding her alive and was awaiting DNA confirmation so he could mourn.

Scale of the disaster and foreign nationals affected

According to IOL, the August 26 flood has killed more than 1,200 people and left more than 4,750 missing in Nepal and China’s Tibet region. The wave of debris destroyed towns, roads, bridges and several hydropower dams.

According to IOL, Nepali police say around 294 foreigners have been rescued, while 583 foreigners remain unaccounted for. Many missing foreign nationals were pilgrims returning from Mount Kailash.

Groups and search efforts

According to IOL, among the unaccounted are 77 pilgrims from spiritual leader Sadhguru’s Isha Foundation, including Europeans, North Americans and Australians. Volunteers from the foundation have travelled to Kathmandu to help relatives seek information.

According to IOL, volunteers said the entire foundation group, including three Nepali guides, remained missing. The foundation provided authorities with identifying details such as distinctive snake-shaped rings and pendants to assist identification.

According to IOL, Nepal police began collecting DNA samples from relatives to build a database for identifying bodies, and families overseas can submit samples in their home countries.

Other groups affected

According to IOL, relatives from Russia’s far east planned to travel to Nepal to search for missing musician Kirill Tretiakov, who had been travelling with a group organised by travel agency Tashi Delek.

According to IOL, trek organiser Fishtail reported losing contact with a group of 20 pilgrims, mostly Malaysians, who were travelling with guides and drivers.

Concerns for Nepal’s tourism sector

According to IOL, officials warned that the disaster would have a significant impact on tourism, an important source of revenue for Nepal. Sunil Sharma of Nepal’s National Tourism Agency said

“The tourism sector is going to suffer from this disaster,”

while noting that

“only four districts”

were directly affected.

Reported by IOL, sourced from AFP.