Tour boss searches for missing brother and 54 pilgrims by air after Nepal floods
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The widened channel of the Bhote Koshi River in the Rasuwa district of Nepal on Aug 27, after the flash flooding.
PHOTO: ATUL LOKE/NYTIMES
- Gopal Thapa flew by helicopter to the flash flood area in northern Nepal to search for 55 missing pilgrims, including his brother, after the disaster on August 26.
- The group included 55 people of various nationalities, escorted by Leaf Holidays, and was caught at the Nepal-Tibet border during the flood.
- Thapa witnessed the destruction firsthand, expressed little hope for survivors, but still awaits news from Nepali authorities conducting rescue efforts.
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KATHMANDU - One of the first things that Gopal Thapa did when he heard about the flash flood on Aug 26 in northern Nepal was to fly straight into the disaster zone that very afternoon.
The owner of Leaf Holidays, a Kathmandu-based travel and trekking agency, hired a chopper to try and trace 55 people, including four Singaporeans, who were part of a group that the agency was escorting to Tibet for the Kailash-Mansarovar pilgrimage.
The group was inside the Gyirong Port complex on the Nepal-China border when Thapa, 42, last spoke with them on the morning of Aug 26. They had cleared immigration on the Nepali side and were queueing up to clear remaining formalities on the Tibetan side.
Among those missing are his brother, Gokarna Thapa, 33, father of two children aged seven and one, who was leading the group, as well as eight other Nepalese staff from the agency. He has tried desperately each day to call their phones since the tragic flash flood but has not been able to get through.
“It has been very painful,” he told The Straits Times.
The 55-member group was an eclectic mix of nationalities, comprising 24 Malaysians, four Singaporeans, seven Ukrainians, an Italian, three Americans, two British, one Belarusian and 13 Nepalis (nine staff members and four clients).
“55 people missing, it is no small thing,” Thapa said. He added that he personally hired the helicopter for around US$3,000 (S$3,800) to try to track his group members and assess the situation.
“The situation was very bad,” he told ST. The chopper didn’t even find a safe spot to land. “There were big houses and buildings (there once) but everything was washed away... Nothing was left, only the river bed.”
The devastation he saw first-hand does not inspire much hope. “I am not hopeful of any good news from there... I know very well because I saw the situation there,” Thapa said.
However, against all odds, he is waiting for some good news from the Nepali authorities who are trying to rescue potential survivors. “We are hoping that from 55 at least one person, two persons, maybe 10 people survive,” he added.
“At least one... then I can know the news about what happened there.”
