Six days after a massive earthquake devastated Nepal and parts of North India, 20 mountaineers from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are stuck at the Mount Everest base camp. Without any help from the outside world the mountaineers, who managed to survive the deadly avalanches caused by the quake that killed 18 mountaineers on the first day itself, have taken shelter at the base camp, 17,598 feet above sea level, on the northern side of Everest that falls in Chinese territory.
Their only link to the outside world is a satellite phone at the base camp and a weak Chinese cellular network, using which, one of the mountaineers Shekhar Babu spoke to the Hyderabad-based media to seek assistance for the hapless mountaineers. The stranded team is desperately waiting for help from either the Indian Government or the Chinese authorities. Shekhar Babu said that they were hearing reports that the Chinese Government was planning to drive them to lhasa or Chengdu, the nearest air bases, but there was no clarity as yet. While Babu is an acclaimed climber, his team mostly consists of inexperienced youngsters, who left Hyderabad for the expedition on April 16.
As the expedition was supposed to last 60 days, the team has sufficient stocks of food, medicines and other essential supplies for the moment, but is anxiously waiting to get out of the place. Aware of the difficulties people were facing in flying out of the devastated Nepalese capital Kathmandu, the team members said they would prefer to reach some other place to take a flight back home.
Meanwhile, officials in Hyderabad said that as soon as they learnt of the plight of the climbers, they began mobilizing the bureaucratic machinery to bring the team back home safely. “We are in touch with Central Government officials in this regard,” a senior official here said. Meanwhile 264 people from Karimnagar district who were stuck in Nepal following the earthquake returned home safely by train.
They landed on Thursday at Ramagundam Railway Station. The district administration officials said they were making arrangements to send these people to their respective places. Interestingly, most of these people were astrologers who had gone to Nepal to make a fortune by telling others’ fortune but ended up facing a deadly earthquake.