Nepal flash floods: 290 Indians missing and 200 stranded in Tibet

MEA says 73 Indians working on the Trishuli-1 hydropower project are among those missing; India has sent 47.5 tonnes of humanitarian assistance to Nepal

At least 290 Indian nationals, including 73 working on the Trishuli-I Hydropower Project, remain missing in Nepal after flash floods struck several districts on Wednesday, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Thursday evening. Sixty-three workers from the project were subsequently rescued. Another 200 Indian nationals who were on a pilgrimage to Kailash Mansarovar were stranded on the Chinese side, it said. 

According to officials, at least 362 people had been reported dead by Thursday evening. The MEA said it did not yet have specific data on the number of Indians who had died. According to data released by Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority, at least 826 people were missing following the flash floods, 590 of them tourists. Of these tourists, 476 foreigners, including Indians, had been reported out of contact, Nepal’s Tourism Board said. 

 

Most of the Indian tourists were en route to Kailash Mansarovar in Tibet or Gosainkunda in Nepal’s Bagmati Province, Nepalese officials said. According to reports, a group of 77 pilgrims from the Isha Foundation, an organisation founded by spiritual leader Jaggi Vasudev, also remained out of contact. The group comprises foreign nationals, including people of Indian origin, as well as Indian nationals who were on a pilgrimage to Kailash Mansarovar. In New Delhi, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said India had sent 47.5 tonnes of humanitarian assistance to Nepal, including 10 tonnes of relief material on Wednesday evening and another 37.5 tonnes on Thursday morning, of which 8 tonnes comprised medicines. Further assistance was being considered, he said. 

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar held a meeting to review the assistance being provided to stranded Indians in Nepal and the humanitarian support for Nepal. Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Nepal Prime Minister Balendra Shah on Wednesday, promising “all possible humanitarian assistance” to Nepal. 

India will also send portable, prefabricated bridges, or Bailey bridges, to Nepal. 

Two separate groups of 37 and 49 nationals from Tamil Nadu, who travelled for the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra through Samrat and Fly Everest travel agencies, were not contactable. Another group of 33 nationals was from Kerala, he said. “We have rescued 21 Indian nationals who are from Tamil Nadu,” Jaiswal said. 

A separate group of 32 Indian nationals from West Bengal travelled with the help of Samrat Travels to Timure in Rasuwa district. There was also another group comprising 61 Indians from other states, the MEA spokesperson said. 

Around 200 Indian nationals on the Tibet side had sought assistance for evacuation. Of them, 95 were in Garchan and were proceeding to cross over into Nepal, while four were in Geelong City and 13 were in Zutulpuk, he said. 

A massive flash flood originating in Tibet swept through central Nepal on Wednesday, devastating several towns and villages, washing away critical bridges and crippling a dozen hydropower projects. 

A preliminary assessment by Nepalese authorities and a revised analysis by the US Geological Survey point to a glacial collapse or an ice-rock avalanche as the trigger for the devastating flash floods. 

Asked whether China had issued any alerts or shared hydrological data on the flash floods, the MEA said it did not have any information on the origin of the disaster. 

The issue of trans-border rivers has also figured in recent India-China discussions. Holding the next meeting of their mechanism on trans-border rivers in September was one of the eight outcomes agreed upon by India and China at a meeting of their respective special representatives in Beijing for boundary talks on Tuesday.  According to a joint statement issued on Wednesday, India and China decided that the next meeting of their Expert-Level Mechanism on Trans-Border Rivers would be held in September. 

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Inputs from PTI