CHENNAI: While 21 people from Tamil Nadu who were rescued from Nepal returned on Friday, the status of 49 others from the state who undertook Kailash-Manasarovar Yatra through an agency in Chromepet remains unclear since the flash floods struck the neighbouring country.
Among them are 21 are from Chennai and its neighbouring districts of Kancheepuram and Chengalpattu.
V Niranjana (25), who lives with her parents P Vezhavendan (55) and V Rajalakshmi (55) in Chromepet, said the latter were part of the touring group. “My parents went along with some of my relatives and family friends. I have been trying to reach them since Tuesday evening. On Wednesday morning, I saw the news about the floods. There have been no proper updates on them so far,” she told TNIE. Sharing her anxiety is her elder brother, who is working in Japan.
Leaving behind his wife and two children, Senthil Palani (40) of Ambattur, who runs a private company, left for the Kailash trip two weeks ago. “For the past two days, we have been watching the news and waiting to know his whereabouts,” his brother-in-law Jayasurya said.
Meenachi (34), a homemaker from Kancheepuram whose husband is currently in Singapore, had left her children behind with her mother before travelling to Nepal. “We are worried as we have no information about her whereabouts. I am trying to get in touch with other families who were also stranded in the floods in Nepal, hoping they may have some information about her,” said Poovarasan, her elder brother.
Krishnamurthy has submitted a petition with the Kancheepuram collectorate seeking information on his father Chandran, who went to Nepal with the 48 others. The travel agency through which Chandran had travelled has also sent representatives to Nepal to assess the situation, he added.
Among the missing persons is M Sathya Narayanan (28), proprietor of the Chromepet-based travel agency Mahadev Kailash Yatra, which he runs along with his father.
Eight people from Coimbatore, too, were part of the 49 undertaking the yatra.
C Punitha of Linganur, and her husband M Chandrasekaran, a retired professor, are among them. P Gayathri Devi, principal of a private school on Thadagam Road, her son Shivanth Prakash, and relatives Sarulatha Sadasivam, Perur Pachapalayam and Raj Thirth Ramchand were others in the group.
Gayathri Devi’s husband Prakash was staying in Kathmandu at the time of the flash floods and had not joined the group on the trek. Retired government doctor Suresh Venkatachalam of Karpagam Garden and his wife S Thangalakshmi also were part of the 49. The couple runs a clinic and has two daughters.
