Bengal anxiously awaits news of tourists missing in Nepal floods

Bengal anxiously awaits news of tourists missing in Nepal floods

By Kunal Chatterjee

Families across West Bengal are anxiously waiting for news of tourists and pilgrims who remain unaccounted for after devastating flash floods swept through Nepal’s Rasuwa district near the Tibet border.

At least 105 Indians and 37 non-resident Indians are among those reported missing in the disaster, according to Nepal’s Tourism Board. The preliminary list includes 384 travellers — 291 foreign nationals and 93 Nepali citizens — although officials have cautioned that the figures are still being verified.

Among those feared missing are at least 36 pilgrims from West Bengal, many of whom were travelling to Kailash Mansarovar. A group travelling through the same tour agency included 30 people from Kolkata and six from Durgapur.

In Durgapur, Arindam Gangopadhyay and his wife Mousumi Gangopadhyay, residents of Bamunara, left for Mansarovar through Nepal on August 21. Their family last spoke to them at around 11pm on Tuesday. The couple were expected to cross the Nepal-Tibet border the following morning, but all contact was lost after the floods struck. Their family has since been desperately waiting for any news.

In Kolkata, the families of Manas Kumar Ghosh and his wife Dipali Sarkar, residents of the Survey Park area, are also living through an agonising wait. The couple left for Nepal on August 21. Their daughter, Adrija Ghosh, a student at AIIMS Delhi, said, “I spoke to my parents the evening before last. Everything was fine then, and the weather was good too. I cannot fathom how this happened.” She said the family had also been unable to contact the travel agency through which her parents had travelled.

Another missing couple are Swapan Mandal and his wife Mou Mandal, retired teachers from Basirhat. They had left for a Kailash trip about a week ago. Their mobile phones have remained switched off since the disaster.

Swapan was a retired teacher at Basirhat Town High School, while Mou taught at Basirhat Baroda Prasad High School. Their only child lives abroad. Relatives and neighbours have been unable to establish contact with them.

Keya Pramanik, a schoolteacher from Sarisha in Diamond Harbour, is also feared missing. She travelled to Nepal with a tour agency on August 21 and spoke to her family before the disaster. Since then, there has been no contact. While families wait for news of their loved ones, several Bengal residents who were in Nepal have managed to remain safe but stranded.

Actor Kharaj Mukherjee, who was in Nepal with his wife for a film shoot, described the difficult conditions. He said, “We are suffering immensely. Yesterday, we were shooting a sequence in the forest and had to sit in the rain for about five hours.”

Mukherjee said he had a flight booked from Kathmandu but was unable to reach the capital because roads had been blocked. “By the time we finished, all the flight tickets were sold out. Meanwhile, the roads were blocked, so there was no way to get to Kathmandu,” he said. He said he planned to travel by road towards Gorakhpur and then return to Kolkata by air.

The floods have caused extensive destruction along the Bhote Koshi River, with houses, vehicles, roads and bridges swept away. Several villages have been submerged and rescue teams are struggling to reach affected areas.

The disaster has also raised concerns for Bengal’s tourism industry, with the Puja holidays approaching. Nepal is a popular destination for Bengali tourists, while North Bengal also attracts large numbers of visitors during the festive season. Travel operators fear that the tragedy could trigger widespread cancellations.

Kunal Chatterjee