The Indian Embassy on Wednesday said almost 200 Indian pilgrims stranded in Nepal’s Hilsa were evacuated to Simikot. Helicopters made 35 trips, officials said. Five commercial flights and three Nepal Army helicopters evacuated another 119 people from Simikot to Surkhet.
Two pilgrims, one from Andhra Pradesh and another from Kerala, have died so far in Nepal while returning from the pilgrimage.
On Tuesday, India had said that around 1,025 pilgrims on their way to Kailash Mansarovar were stranded in Hilsa and Simikot and another 550 in Tibet following landslides caused by heavy rains. Pilgrims in Tibet are still there and are safe now, ANI reported.
The Indian Embassy has organised buses to ferry stranded pilgrims from Surkhet to Nepalganj. Authorities are also considering hiring chartered helicopters to expedite the evacuation process. The decision, however, depends on weather conditions and the operators’ willingness to play on those routes, the embassy tweeted.
The infrastructure in Hilsa has been categorised as bare, while Simikot has decent boarding, communication and medical facilities, PTI reported. The embassy has set up a a hotline which is being attended to by staff who speak Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam in addition to Hindi and English.
Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said her ministry would offer its assistance whenever necessary, PTI reported.
Tamil Nadu minister D Jayakumar said that of the 23 people from the state who had gone for the pilgrimage, 19 were safe in Simikot and four had returned to Chennai.
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