For Shivanagouda Chillur and his family from north Karnataka, the six-hour drive from Pokhara to Muktinath temple on Aug 25 was smooth and dry. It was the return leg, hours later, that would haunt them.“There was no rain while we were travelling to Muktinath. But it started pouring on the way back. We crossed Kushma Kaiya suspension bridge, one of the highest and longest in Asia, on the evening of Aug 25. The same bridge was washed away the next day around 9am in the flash flood,” Chillur said.His group, part of 55 Kannadigas from Haveri district travelling in Nepal, is now confirmed safe, including 12 from Rattihalli. But the hours in between were a blur of rain, washed-out roads, and mounting panic.The travellers had set off from Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru, on Aug 23, reaching Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh before leaving for Pokhara the following day. From there, the plan was a day trip to Muktinath, about 175km away, and back. It was on the return that the tables turned, with the group finding itself nearly 20km from the worst-hit stretch when news of the flooding came through.“Immediately, we returned and reached a safe place. We stayed about 50km away from the disaster spot. Now, we are travelling to Ayodhya by another route and are expected to reach Bengaluru by Aug 29 evening,” a relieved Chillur said.Fellow traveller SB Gulappanavar described Wednesday as a day spent in panic, unsure whether the group would make it home safely. Rescue teams were working through the night in Rasuwa and Nuwakot districts, where several people, including locals, remained stranded. “We were lucky to have crossed the disaster areas one day earlier. If we had been delayed by even 12 hours, we might have been washed away,” Gulappanavar said.For SS Gulappanavar, a relative of one of the travellers, the wait was agonising from afar. “All six couples, including our father and mother, travelled to Nepal from Rattihalli. Luckily, all are safe,” he said.Dharwad techie missingWhile the Rattihalli families have found relief, uncertainty continues for the family of Rakesh Naik, a 45-year-old software engineer from Dharwad who has been out of contact since the evening of Aug 25.Rakesh, who works in Australia, had flown to Delhi on Aug 10 to join a 71-member Isha Foundation group on the Kailash Mansarovar pilgrimage. The group was on its way back through Nepal when floods and landslides struck, cutting off contact with several pilgrims, Rakesh among them.His father Shivaprakash Naik, a retired railway officer living in Shivagiri, Dharwad, said the family was told the entire 71-member team was safe, even as they awaited word directly from Rakesh. “Union minister Pralhad Joshi assured us that efforts are being made to establish contact with the pilgrims. We hope Rakesh will get in touch soon,” he said.
