‘New lease of life’: 47 pilgrims return to Maharashtra after flash floods in Nepal

Delayed visas and illness kept 47 Maharashtra pilgrims away from Nepal’s disaster-hit areas, allowing them to escape the devastation and return home safely

With a prayer on their lips and a grateful heart, 47 pilgrims from Maharashtra returned from Nepal on Saturday, the first from the state to arrive from the Himalayan country devastated by the glacial collapse on August 26.

Relatives welcome 37 pilgrims from Raigad and Mumbai who were stranded in Nepal as they arrive safely at Mumbai airport today after returning from Kathmandu (Satish Bate/ Hindustan Times)

“Lord Mahadev saved us,’’ said Pooja Bhosale from Malad in Mumbai, on landing at the Mumbai airport, where she along with 42 others arrived on an Indigo flight from Kathmandu. Four others collapsed into the waiting arms of family members at the Nagpur railway station, where they arrived on the Kerala Express from Delhi after taking a flight out of Kathmandu.

All 47 pilgrims escaped the devastation in Nepal but were stranded before making it back to Kathmandu, from where they returned to India on Saturday. Barring the four from Vidarbha, who visited the Pashupatinath Temple in Kathmandu, the others were to yet head to the holy sites of Kailash and Mansarovar and were in towns some distance away when disaster struck. Some had been held back by delayed visas, while others were delayed by members who had taken ill and needed medical aid. Not luck, not chance, but divine intervention, they said, is what saved them.

Delayed visas, illness kept pilgrims from disaster zone

Smita Pawar, a tahsildar from Pune, was one of the three in the group who developed hypoxia. “I believe God has given me a new lease of life,’’ said Pawar.

Of the 43 pilgrims who landed in Mumbai, 37 were with the Jai Girnari Shivdutt Mandir Trust of Alibag. Shama Sathe, a Mumbai resident with the group, said delayed visas had saved their lives. “We were to visit Nepal from August 15 to 28 but got our visas a day late and our schedule shifted. We were in Saga city in Tibet and had not yet reached Mansarovar when the tragedy struck.”

Yogini Patil of Ahilyanagar, also with the group, believes she is alive “because God sent us for a blood test”. “I was saved as I waited for a blood test with another tourist,” said Patil. She said she will never forget the kindness of those who, despite the desperate circumstances, helped get them back home.

seeya greets her Mother Sonali belosay at Mumbai Airport

Nagpur families breathe sigh of relief as pilgrims return

Hours earlier, in Nagpur, the Upadhyay family counted the minutes anxiously until the Kerala Express pulled in. As soon as Varsha Upadhyay, 64, stepped onto the platform, her son Sagar and daughter-in-law Priya rushed forward, tears of relief streaming down their faces. “My mother is everything to us,” said Sagar, a healthcare worker at a government hospital in Hinganghat. “After losing my father, the thought of losing her was unbearable. We haven’t slept a wink, nor have we eaten.”

Varsha was among four pilgrims from Vidarbha who returned on Saturday. The group, all from one family, also included Indira Chaudhary, 65, Sulochana Khapre, 70 and Deepak Pande 51. They were in Kathmandu to visit the revered Pashupatinath Temple there.

The group had traveled to Nepal along with 102 others led by Sridhar Maharaj but they returned separately as they were seniors and one of them had taken ill. Although their hotel in Kathmandu was nearly 100km from the disaster zone, the catastrophe sent panic through the group. “We were terrified the floods would reach Kathmandu,” Varsha recalled. “Sulochana’s health began deteriorating rapidly under the stress, which scared us even more.” she said.

Road evacuation attempts hit repeated roadblocks

Initial attempts to evacuate the large group by road hit repeated dead ends. Buses arranged by the local administration were forced to turn back at Lele Village, and attempts to cross into Bihar were halted by the Nepali police at Lalitpur for safety reasons, says Indira Choudhury.

Fearing for his mother’s health, Chaudhary’s son Harshal made a crucial decision. He and the other three families arranged emergency flight tickets from Kathmandu to Delhi for the group of four. From Delhi, they boarded the Kerala Express on Friday, finally returning to Nagpur on Saturday at noon.

The remaining 102 pilgrims from Vidarbha in their group travelled from Kathmandu to Patna by bus and will arrive on the Patna-Nanded Express early on Sunday.