Nava Pandey flew from Sydney to Nepal on Thursday after Nepal’s disaster management agency released names of people found following a catastrophic flood that struck the Nepal-Tibet border region on Wednesday. A name appearing on the survivors list matched that of his wife, Sumi Adhikari, who was among approximately 130 pilgrims near the Gyirong border crossing when the disaster occurred.
Adhikari, 41, had completed a Mount Kailash pilgrimage with the Isha Foundation and was preparing to return home to their two children. Location data from her iPhone indicated she was near the border immigration center when the floodwaters struck, and the building where she was sheltering was completely destroyed. On Friday evening, a family friend drove more than two hours from Kathmandu to the Nuwakot district to investigate the name on the survivors list, only to confirm it belonged to a different person.
Rescue and recovery efforts have faced significant obstacles due to the remote location and extensive destruction caused by the floods. Roads and bridges in the area have been completely washed away, with satellite imagery showing the region reduced to mud and debris. Access to the Gyirong border crossing has been possible only by helicopter, and Chinese rescue teams were forced to halt operations on Friday as a barrier lake threatened to overflow. The Nepali army was expected to begin ground searches on Saturday.
As of Saturday, nearly 3,000 people were reported missing across the affected region, including at least 777 foreigners. Nepal’s disaster agency reported 2,426 missing persons on its side of the border, while China reported 554 missing in Tibet. Many of the missing foreigners are believed to be pilgrims who came to walk around Mount Kailash, a site sacred to multiple religions and visited by thousands annually.
Pandey and other affected families have called for more information and direct communication from authorities, particularly from the Chinese government. He expressed hope that ground search teams would locate missing persons and emphasized that families should not be left without answers during the critical search period. Pandey remains in Kathmandu, waiting for news of his wife’s whereabouts.
Article Attribution | Read More at Article Source
Article summary produced by Claude AI