Rescue of 400 Nepalis stranded in India floods underway: MoFA

KATHMANDU: The Foreign Ministry on Thursday said that the Nepali pilgrims at Badri Kedar of India were being rescued by the Indian government. They have been reportedly left stranded due to landslides and floods that have hit the region following incessant rainfall.

Spokesperson at the Foreign Ministry, Arjun Bahadur Thapa, said the Nepali pilgrims stranded after the disaster at Badri Kedar of Uttarkhand in India were being rescued by the Indian government upon the request of Nepal government.

Seventy out of some 400 Nepalis stranded have already been airlifted to safe camps at Dehradun and Rishikesh of India, he added.

“Nepali Embassy in New Delhi is also constantly in contact with the Indian rescuers and doing the needful to rescue the affected Nepalis. And, there has been no reported Nepali casualty in the disaster,” said Spokesperson Thapa.

According to the Indian media, the landslides and floods lashed Uttarkhand of India, killing at least 70 persons, affecting 60,000 people and destroying massive physical infrastructures recently.

Badri Kedar is one of the holy pilgrim sites that Hindus from Nepal visit frequently.