Nepal floods: 36 West Bengal pilgrims missing as State, Centre launch rescue coordination
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "Nepal floods: 36 West Bengal pilgrims missing as State, Centre launch rescue coordination")
An aerial view shows houses lying deluged in sludge after Nepal flash floods. Indian pilgrims Manas Kumar Ghosh (65), and his wife, Dipali Sarkar; Susmita Bhattacharya. Photograph: (AFP, WION)
The West Bengal government said it is in constant touch with Nepalese authorities and the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu, and is preparing to send a team of officials to the affected area today.
Families across West Bengal are living through an agonising wait, as at least 36 tourists from Kolkata and surrounding districts remain unaccounted for following a devastating flash flood that struck the Rasuwagadhi area on the Nepal-Tibet border on Wednesday (Aug 26). According to the Nepal Tourism Board, a total of 178 Indians are still missing.
A pilgrimage turned nightmare
The group, organised by Kolkata-based Chalo Jai Travel for a 12-day Kailash-Manasarovar package tour, had left Howrah Station on August 21, brimming with spiritual anticipation. The itinerary had gone smoothly at first — a peaceful first day in Kathmandu, visits to the sacred Pashupatinath and Guhyeshwari temples, then the journey toward Syabrubesi and onward to the Tibet border crossing at Rasuwagadhi.
That is where tragedy struck. According to the travel agency, the group of 30 tourists and two tour managers was crossing at Rasuwagadhi around 8:35 am IST on Wednesday when a flash flood tore through the area and destroyed a bridge. Contact was lost by 10:30 am and has not been re-established since. Chilling irony: another group of 94 South Indian tourists had crossed the very same spot just five minutes earlier, narrowly escaping disaster as their vehicle had already crossed into Tibet.
Fragments of hope amid fear
For one family, a small ray of hope emerged. Shubhashree Chakraborty, currently missing, texted her husband early Wednesday morning that she had cleared Nepal immigration, her passport freshly stamped, and that she was waiting on the bus for what should have been a short 15-minute ride to Chinese immigration. Then — silence. The flood hit around 8:30 am, suggesting she and others may have already crossed into the Tibet immigration office when disaster struck. Reports suggest Chinese immigration authorities shut the office by 9 am and moved several people to an army camp for rescue operations. Her husband believes contacting Chinese authorities directly may be the only way to learn her fate.
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Susmita Bhattacharya (66), a resident of Kasba, left on August 21 with the Mithila Express along with the Chalo Jai group to travel to Mansarovar.
“We last spoke to her on Sunday, and had WhatsApp contact on Monday. That was the last time we heard from her,” said Tiyasha Chatterjee, her daughter-in-law.
Other families are equally desperate. Sujata Banerjee, whose husband's friend Arindam Ganguly is missing along with his wife Mausumi Ganguly, described the torment of incomplete answers: "We have not been able to speak to them since yesterday. We also called the travel agency, and they told us that they had spoken to them last night and again this morning... They are not giving us complete details, and we are extremely worried and disturbed."
Another pilgrim couple who travelled with the Chalo Jai are also missing. Manas Kumar Ghosh (65), a retired employee, and his wife, Dipali Sarkar, left on August 21. Their flat is currently locked. Their daughter, Adrija, lives in Delhi and is studying medicine at AIIMS.
Not every story ends in the unknown. Actor Rajatava Dutta confirmed that fellow actor Kharaj Mukherjee, who was in Nepal for a film shoot and had been reported stranded near Pokhara, is safe — though stuck far from the disaster zone with roads blocked and flights grounded.
State and Centre mobilise
The West Bengal government said it is in constant touch with Nepalese authorities and the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu, and is preparing to send a team of officials to the affected area today. Kolkata Police has opened a toll-free helpline — 1800-345-5678 — for anxious families seeking information. So far, 36 people from Kolkata and other parts of the state have been reported missing.
Meanwhile, the Centre has directed Chief Secretaries across all states to compile detailed lists of missing residents, intended to help the Ministry of External Affairs coordinate directly with grieving and frightened families.
Four representatives from Chalo Jai Travel have flown to Kathmandu to work with Nepalese authorities in the search. As rescue efforts continue in the flood-ravaged Rasuwagadhi region, families in Kolkata, Hooghly, and Bardhaman can do little but wait by their phones — clinging, as one husband put it, to the hope that even silence from behind a closed border does not mean the worst.
