BENGALURU: Officials in the Karnataka State Disaster Management (KSDMA), under the Revenue Department, feared that the number of people from Karnataka stranded in Nepal, Tibet and other surrounding areas could further increase from the existing 28 as of 5pm on Friday.
A senior official said, "This number of those stranded in the flood-hit region has been confirmed so far. Now, as the rescue operations and excavation works in other parts of Nepal and other areas start, the number of stranded people could increase. The worry has also heightened with the new floods that have occurred in Nepal. The cascading effect will be downstream, and more people could be affected, including those from Karnataka. We are on alert and trying to get information from various tour operators who usually operate in those regions."
In the wake of this incident and those that have happened in the past, the KSDMA officials said a discussion will be held with the government, asking it to make it mandatory for all tour operators and travel agents to share details of all tourists travelling overseas and to such vulnerable locations in the future. This will only help in establishing contact faster and providing aid and assistance faster in such untoward incidents.
The official admitted that, though the time taken to trace the stranded and establish contact has become faster from previous incidents to now, still two days were spent, and help from the defence forces in the region has also helped. But in such situations, time is crucial; thus, if information is shared with the department, it will be beneficial, the official added.
