102 Nagpur pilgrims stranded in Nepal floods return home safely
Around 102 pilgrims from Nagpur who were stranded in Kathmandu following devastating flash floods returned safely to the city on Sunday morning, Aug 30 officials said.
The 102 pilgrims, along with four others from different parts of the Vidarbha region, had travelled to Nepal on August 19 to visit the Pashupatinath temple and other pilgrimage sites. They stayed in Kathmandu until August 27, a day after flash floods struck the Nepal-Tibet border.
While four pilgrims from Vidarbha reached by flight on Saturday, the other 102 reached Nagpur railway station by train around 4:30 a.m. on Sunday. Nagpur's BJP president Dayashankar Tiwari was present at the station to receive them.
Speaking to PTI, pilgrim Yogesh Gawande said they were fortunate to have returned to India amid the tragedy, which has claimed at least 675 lives and left nearly 2,400 missing. Another pilgrim thanked Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis for facilitating their return.
According to the Maharashtra Chief Minister's Office, Fadnavis was in constant touch with Nepal MP Sandeep Rana to arrange their safe return. Another pilgrim said the group took a bus from Kathmandu to Janakpur in Bihar on August 28 and reached Danapur the following day, before travelling to Patna to board a train for Nagpur.
Pandit Sridhar Tripathi, who led the pilgrim group, said one traveller, Nirmala Pandey (72), remains hospitalised in Kathmandu after suffering a heart attack; her son from Nagpur has since reached the city to look after her.
On Saturday, four pilgrims from Vidarbha, including three women, had already returned safely to Nagpur. The four — Indira Chaudhary (65) and Sulochna Khapre of Wardha, and Deepak Pande and Varsha Upadhyay of Hinganghat — were part of a separate group that had also travelled to Nepal to visit the Pashupatinath temple. They flew from Kathmandu to Delhi on August 28 before travelling on to Nagpur by the Kerala Express on Saturday morning.
(With inputs from PTI)
