CHENNAI: Fifty-five-year-old Maravel Nagappan of Chromepet, whose son, M Sathya Narayanan (28), led 48 pilgrims on a Kailash-Manasarovar pilgrimage through his travel agency Mahadev Kailash Yatra, has been waiting for good news from the government, as they have been reported missing since Wednesday morning. After hearing about the flood, Nagappan has been unable to eat.
Speaking amid a barrage of calls from relatives of the other affected families, Maravel told TNIE, “The group led by my son left on August 14. They completed the visit to Kailash as per plan and were on their way back when tragedy struck. They had a flight scheduled from Kathmandu to Delhi at 1.30 pm on Thursday.”
An official emergency reference document from the Foreign Affairs Office of the Tibet Autonomous Region People’s Government said the group was currently missing. Their last contact was from inside the Chinese immigration building, while they were attempting to exit China and enter Nepal.
The document, assessed by TNIE, said all 49 persons were inside the Gyirong Port Immigration Building on the Chinese side on Wednesday when a “catastrophic flash flood” struck the area around 10.30 am local time. They were reportedly inside the building at around 10.18 am, about 12 minutes before the flood.
Mahadev Kailash Yatra, which started functioning at Radha Nagar in 2016, operates from the first-floor office of a building where Maravel and Sathya live. On the second floor, which was strictly off-limits to the media, Sathya’s eight-month-old son was waiting for his father to return, added Maravel, breaking down in tears.
Police sources said on Thursday morning that the agency requested security to prevent any untoward incidents involving aggrieved kin of the missing pilgrims.
V Praveen Kumar (32) of Ekkatuthangal, whose parents K Vikaraman (66) and V Manjula (59) are part of the 49-member group, told TNIE, “I last spoke to my mother on Monday when she made a video call to inform me that they had completed the visit to Kailash and were returning. I’m yet to get any updates about them.” Praveen Kumar runs a plastic mould company along with his father. Five other close relatives of the couple from Chromepet and Ambattur are also missing.
His wife Nivedhita said, “We contacted a travel agency in Nepal that was in charge of the group after they crossed into Nepal from India. They told us that the group contacted them on Wednesday to say they reached the immigration office, which was crowded with people from India and other countries who were moving in and out of Tibet.” Nivedhita added that local police and officials from the tahsildar’s office visited the house and offered them support.
A man in his 60s whose close friend, A Gopal (64), is missing, said, “We have been friends for the past 35 years. I arranged a vehicle for Gopal and his wife Saraswathi (64) from their house in Kancheepuram to the airport. We expect to hear good news from the government officials heading to Delhi to coordinate the rescue operations,” he said and added that along with his wife, he too was planning to go on the trip but cancelled it at the last minute.
Meanwhile, another couple, Ramesh and Uma, who TNIE met at the Chromepet agency, said, “We planned to go on the trip along with this group on August 14. But due to visa issues, we could not make it. We are planning to go on this trip in September. We will take another route and reach the destination to see God.”