The families were part of a tour organised to visit Kailash Mansoravar for which they had left from Kolkata on August 21, with a return planned for September 3.

The families were part of a tour organised to visit Kailash Mansoravar for which they had left from Kolkata on August 21, with a return planned for September 3.

The families were part of a tour organised to visit Kailash Mansoravar for which they had left from Kolkata on August 21, with a return planned for September 3.

32 people who had travelled together from West Bengal to Nepal have been impacted by the devastating floods.

One of them is a Non-Resident Indian (NRI) from the United Kingdom. A 53-year-old lady named Moushumi Ganguly was rescued on Thursday, though further details are awaited. Ganguly had travelled with her husband, though he is still reported to be missing along with others.

The families reported missing from the state include a couple in Kolkata’s Survey Park area, a schoolteacher from Diamond Harbour, an elderly couple from Baruipur, a 62-year-old retired railway employee from Kharagpur in the West Midnapore district, a 32-year-old tour group member from Tarakeshwar, a resident from Siliguri and a retired teacher couple from Bashirhat whose phones are now switched off.

Five residents are from Durgapur with one rescued, though there is no official confirmation whether it is the 53-year-old lady.

Susmita Bhattacharya

65-year-old Susmita Bhattacharya, based in Kolkata’s Kasba area, last spoke to her son on Sunday after which her family is trying to get information on her whereabouts.

“My mother had gone to Kailash Mansarovar with the tour group and we last spoke to her on Sunday,” said her son Sunit Bhattacharya.

61-year-old Amarnath Pal, based in the Patuli area in Kolkata was travelling to Nepal for the first time and was alone with the tour group. His daughter last spoke to him on Tuesday night.

Amarnath Pal

“I contacted the local police, the Indian embassy in Nepal and the tour operator. There is no update from the Indian embassy,” said his daughter Rupama Pal.

Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari said those missing in the Nepal floods are mostly from Kolkata and the Hoogly district, who travelled with the same tour group. A control room has been operating at Nabanna, the state secretariat, since Wednesday night.

7-8 families have contacted the state government, which has assured them that it would help look for their missing family members in Nepal.

“We are in touch with the Kathmandu Indian embassy. We have sent report to PMO (Prime Minister’s office); HMO (Home Minister’s Office). They are also looking for their safe return,” said Suvendu Adhikari.

Former CM Mamata Banerjee expressed her condolences for those who lost family members to the flash flooding in Nepal.

Of the 32 people, two of them were from the travel company, being the tour operator and tour manager. Four other staff from the company were sent on Thursday morning to Kathmandu to get more information on the stranded group.

“I spoke to them last at 6:30 AM, when they had left from the hotel to reach the border. After that there has been no communication,” said Manoj Singh, a travel operator at the Chalo Jaai Travel Club, which has been organising yearly trips to the Kailash Mansarovar since 2008.

The tour group was to reach the immigration office at around 8:00 AM on Wednesday and then make their way ahead to Kailash Mansarovar.

The travel company speculates two possibilities—that the stranded tourists have crossed over the danger zone and are not able to communicate with anyone due to network issues after the floods, or that they are missing.

Families of tourists are frantically calling and visiting the tour company in Kolkata for further information on their loved ones. The oldest tourist is around 64 years old with the others' ages within the 40-64 range.

The families were part of a tour organised to visit Kailash Mansoravar and had left from Kolkata on August 21 and reached Kathmandu a day later. They were to return to Kolkata on September 3.

Nepal has been a popular tourist destination, due to easy access from West Bengal. Travel operators are concerned about cancellations in coming months.

“The festive season is around the corner and Nepal was always an evergreen sector for us. It is one of the countries where we don’t need the passport. People are afraid now, there could be a lot of outbound impact from here,” said Anil Punjabi, Chairman, Travel Agents Federation of India.

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