Heavy monsoon rains triggered flash floods in Nepal’s Rasuwa district on Wednesday, sweeping away roads, bridges and other infrastructure that form the main over‑land gateway for private Kailash Mansarovar pilgrimages. The disaster struck the Rasuwagadhi crossing and surrounding valleys, cutting off communication for dozens of travellers moving from Kathmandu through Timure toward the Tibet border at Gyirong (Kerung). In the aftermath, Gujarat’s State Emergency Operations Centre (SEOC) listed 23 Indian‑origin individuals as missing or uncontactable as of 12:54 p.m. on Friday. The list includes residents of Ahmedabad, Surat, Anand, Kheda and Rajkot, as well as Indian citizens living abroad in the United States, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. Among the missing are Kinnari and Mihir Patel, who departed on August 23 with Richa Tours for the Yatra; US‑based Bimalkumar and Jaimina Patel, who travelled on August 16 via Namaste Nepal Trekking; and Ashok Kapadi of Ahmedabad, last heard from at 8:30 a.m. on August 26 near the China‑border immigration centre. Other names include Jay Kotecha (Rajkot), Paresh and Jyoti Patel (US citizens), Minaxi Ramani (Mumbai), and a group of Kheda‑linked travellers – Umesh, Akansha, Ishan and Shilpa Patel – who flew from Delhi to Nepal between August 25‑26. A few cases have been clarified: Roma Intwala of Valsad, initially reported missing, was later confirmed safe in Nepal. The Indian Ministry of External Affairs and the embassy in Kathmandu are monitoring the situation, while Prime Minister Narendra Modi has expressed condolences to Nepal’s Prime Minister Balendra Shah.
ALSO READ | India and ASEAN Nations Chart Scalable Agricultural Cooperation at Summit
