Tour boss searches by air for missing brother and 54 pilgrims after flash flood

KATHMANDU - One of the first things that Gopal Thapa did when he heard about the flash flood on August 26 in northern Nepal was to fly straight into the disaster zone that very afternoon.The owner of Leaf Holidays, a Kathmandu-based travel and trekking agency, hired a chopper to try and trace 55 people, including 4 Singaporeans, who were part of a group that the agency was escorting to Tibet for the Kailash-Mansarovar pilgrimage.The group was inside the Gyoring Port complex on the Nepal-Tibet border when Thapa, 42, last spoke with them on Wednesday morning. They had cleared immigration on the Nepali side and were queueing up to clear remaining formalities on the Tibetan side.Among those missing is his brother, Gokarna Thapa (33), father of two children (7 and 1) who was leading the group, as well as eight other Nepalese staffers from the agency. He has tried desperately each day to call their phones since Wednesday’s tragic flash flood but has not been able to get through.“It has been very painful,” he told The Straits Times with a long pause.The 55-member group was an eclectic mix of nationalities, including 24 Malaysians, 4 Singaporeans, 7 Ukrainians, 1 Italian, 3 Americans, 2 British, 1 Belarusian and 13 Nepalis (nine staff members and 4 clients).“55 people missing, it is no small thing,” Thapa said. He added he personally hired the helicopter for around USD 3,000 to try and track his group members and assess the situation.“The situation was very bad,” he told ST. The chopper didn’t even find a safe spot to land. “There were big houses and buildings (there once) but everything was washed away... Nothing was left, only the river bed.”The devastation he saw first-hand doesn’t inspire much hope. “I am not hopeful of any good news from there... I know very well because I saw the situation there,” Thapa said.However, and against all odds, he is waiting for some good news from the Nepali authorities who are trying to rescue potential survivors. “We are hoping that from 55 at least one person, two persons maybe 10 people survive,” he added.“At least one... then I can know the news about what happened there.”Debarshi Dasgupta is The Straits Times’ India correspondent, covering the country as well as other parts of South Asia for the paper.