India, Aug. 30 -- 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.

"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 Satu...