Kolkata, Aug. 27 -- Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Thursday said 32 tourists from West Bengal were among those reported missing after devastating flash floods and mudslides hit the Bhote Koshi and Trishuli River areas near the Nepal-Tibet border on Wednesday.

"We have been informed that 150 Indians are missing, of whom 33 are from Bengal. However, I received a message from the state Home Secretary this evening that contact has been established with one of them, and he is safe," Adhikari said at a Kolkata Police programme on Thursday evening.

Earlier in the day, the Chief Minister said that the Kolkata Police commissioner had informed him that a tourism organisation had taken the group to Nepal and that the place where they had put up was washed away in the disaster. "We are very worried. We have set up control rooms at the state secretariat and police headquarters. I believe in God and pray for their safe return," Adhikari said.

The Chief Minister stated that West Bengal stands in full solidarity with Nepal and asserted that the administrative channels are actively coordinating with the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu to verify real-time data and facilitate prompt rescue operations.

The state police have opened help desks (033-24793311, 9147890181) at its headquarters in Kolkata, while the Indian Embassy in Nepal has additionally issued direct emergency numbers - +977 985 131 6807 and +977 970 910 7500.

A 32-member group from Kolkata, comprising 30 pilgrims bound for Mount Kailash and Mansarovar and two staff members of a city-based travel agency, remains out of contact.

The group, which left Kolkata on August 21, reached the Nepal-China border immigration office around 8.30 am on Wednesday to obtain permits for Tibet when a sudden avalanche struck, disrupting communication links.

Among the 32 missing, 4 are from Kolkata; these include Manas Kumar Ghosh (63) from Eastern Park, Santoshpur, Amarnath Pal (63) from Baishnabghata Patuli township, Rina Banerjee (54) from Khanpur Road, Kolkata and Ranjit Kumar Howalder (63) from Parnasree Pally, Behala.

Five persons who have gone missing are residents of Asansol Durgapur Police Commissionerate, three each from Baruipur Police district and Chandannagore Police Commissionerate, two each from Barrackpore Police Commissionerate and Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate, Hooghly Rural, Diamond Harbour Police District and one each from Howrah Police Commissionerate, Paschim Midnapore, Barasat Police District and Basirhat Police district.

In other areas, stranded tourists have managed to establish partial communication. A bus carrying 65 tourists from Arambagh in Hooghly that left for Nepal on August 24 remains halted at Chetan Park, roughly 120 kilometres away from the disaster zone. Relatives grew anxious when phone lines dropped Wednesday morning, but limited contact was re-established by evening.

Kolkata resident Arnab Kumar Datta claimed that his mother and mother-in-law were safe. "They left for Nepal on August 24, but the next day we came to know that there was a flash flood in Nepal. We were quite worried. We were unable to contact them, but we have now succeeded in contacting them. They are presently lodged in a hotel in the Pokhara valley; the place is more than 100 km away from the affected area," he said.

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.