More Than 140 Pilgrims Traced Safe and 21 Brought Home — But Families Wait as State Government Says It Still Cannot Contact Over 90 People
CHENNAI – Tamil Nadu is racing to account for more than 90 of its residents believed to have travelled to Nepal as pilgrims following the catastrophic Himalayan floods, even as the first group of survivors returned safely to India on Friday.
State School Education and Information Minister A. Rajmohan said more than 400 people from Tamil Nadu may have travelled to Nepal and that over 140 had now been traced and confirmed safe. But contact had still not been established with more than 90.
The figures remain fluid because pilgrims travelled in organised groups as well as individually, leaving authorities attempting to build an accurate picture while communications remain badly disrupted in the disaster zone.
Tamil Nadu has established a control room and war room at Tamil Nadu House in New Delhi, coordinating with India’s Ministry of External Affairs, Nepalese authorities and other agencies.
Four Tamil Nadu ministers have travelled to Delhi to oversee the effort, an indication of the scale the crisis has assumed for the state.
There was, however, some desperately needed good news on Friday.
Twenty-one Tamil Nadu pilgrims rescued by the Nepal Army arrived at Delhi airport, where they were received by External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar. State Minister Rajmohan described their survival as nothing short of a miracle.
Their accounts provide some indication of the violence of the disaster. Survivors described escaping rising water and debris as the floods swept through pilgrimage routes near the Nepal-Tibet border.
The wider disaster is enormous. Reuters reported Friday that at least 547 people had died in Nepal and another five in Tibet, with nearly 1,000 people still missing as rescue operations resumed after fears surrounding a glacier-formed lake eased.
For families in Tamil Nadu, however, the enormity of the international disaster eventually reduces to something painfully personal.
They are waiting for a telephone to ring.
Until every pilgrim is accounted for, 21 people coming home is cause for enormous relief – but not yet celebration.
Tamil Nadu says more than 90 pilgrims remained uncontactable as of Friday evening, while more than 140 had been traced safe. Twenty-one rescued pilgrims returned to India after being rescued by the Nepal Army.
