More missing Australians identified as death toll rises
Six more Australians have been identified as missing in the Nepalese floods, as the overall number rose to 41, in what could be the worst loss of Australian life on foreign soil since the Bali bombings.
Bharat Mangwani, Karan Bhardwaj, Arpan Kothari, Bhavin Raval, Michael Ryan Keats and Gopi Agastya were all identified among the list of Australians, after family members for each either reached out to this masthead or posted on social media about the search for their loved ones.
No Australians have been listed as rescued according to the Nepalese National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority, with Australians also accounting for the highest number of foreign nationals missing in the wreckage left behind by the devastating floods.
Harsh Maheshwari, a friend of Sydneysider Mangwani, said they held out hope that some Australians were still alive and were stuck in a building, under the mud.
“We are all still hoping. His family have travelled there to search for him. They could have stayed in the building or maybe they went out. We don’t know, but we have hope,” he said.
Mangwani’s last known location was at the Gyirong Immigration Facility, which was inundated with floodwater in the early stages of the disaster. Like many Australians caught in the tragedy, he was taking part in a pilgrimage to Mount Kailash and Lake Manasarovar as part of the Kailash Manasarovar Yatra.
The family of Royal Australian Air Force member Karan Bhardwaj is pleading for information after losing contact with the Brisbane father, who was travelling with tour group Kailash Journeys when the flash floods hit.
Bhardwaj was travelling with friends Kothari, 40, and Raval, 41. The Brisbane-based trio have not been heard from since and are among six Australians currently missing from the Kailash Journeys tour group.
Keats from NSW was understood to be returning from a journey to Mount Kailash in Tibet, and had reached the border crossing into Nepal when the floods struck. The 37-year-old had been due to arrive home from his journey on Thursday night.
Details surrounding 45-year-old Gopi Agastya are still scarce, but his brother-in-law told this masthead that he was missing. Venkatesh Bittu confirmed his family were “waiting for him to return safe”.
The only identified Australian who made contact with family so far has been 26-year-old Cara Severino, who called her parents early on Friday morning. But they have not heard from her since, and are among the many families in Australia holding out for more information.
Nepal’s disaster agency revised the death toll to 626 with 2426 people missing. More than 3700 people have been rescued in Nepal so far. China’s state media said 554 people were missing on the Chinese side.
Search and rescue efforts are continuing at several locations in Nepal and China’s Tibet, including the Upper Trishuli-1 Hydropower Project in Nepal’s Rasuwa district and the severely damaged Gyirong border crossing on the Chinese side.
Poor weather temporarily hampered aerial rescue operations in Nepal as the search for thousands of missing people entered its fourth day.
Nepali Army spokesperson Brigadier General Raja Ram Basnet said rescue efforts would continue at the hydropower construction site, where authorities believe more than 100 people are trapped in a tunnel filled with thick mud.
Basnet said rescuers had used baskets and ropes to reach some people, but the operation remained difficult because of the mud up to 1.5 metres thick and the limited number of places where helicopters could land.
Rescuers remain on high alert for more flooding from a new lake that formed high up in the Himalayan mountains after the initial floods on Wednesday. Experts had warned that the lake, created after the glacier collapse that triggered the floods, was at risk of overflowing.
However, monitoring data from the Chinese Ministry of Water Resources showed late on Friday that the lake had dwindled in size. The water level dropped by 10 metres from the high point on Thursday morning, Chinese broadcaster CCTV said.
Rescuers have reached Gyirong Port, the border crossing with Nepal obliterated by a wave of water. It was not immediately known how many people were at the border checkpoint building when the floods hit.
The cost of rebuilding once the rescue operations are complete for Nepal could stretch into billions of dollars. Finance minister Swarnim Wagle told Reuters the country may need up to $US5 billion ($6.9 billion), a bill equal to nearly a tenth of the economy.
“The initial estimate is between $4 to $5 billion. Just an estimate,” Wagle said. “We will require much less than what we needed for the 2015 earthquake. Loss and damage is being assessed.”
Wagle did not elaborate on why the reconstruction bill was expected to be less than the $US9 billion spent after the 2015 magnitude-7.8 quake, Nepal’s worst recorded disaster. It killed nearly 9000 people, destroyed more than half a million homes and caused losses estimated at around a third of Nepal’s economy.
Wednesday’s floods will be a major blow to an economy reliant on remittances, tourism and hydropower, damaging power projects that account for more than 12 per cent of national generating capacity.
Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs said it had fielded more than 450 consular calls in relation to the disaster, with communities across the country reeling from the news.
The department revised the list of missing Australians to 41 on Saturday, up from 38 on Friday. It has the potential to be the worst loss of life overseas since the 2002 Bali bombings, which killed 88 Australians.
Assistant Immigration Minister Matt Thistlethwaite said the Nepalese and Tibetan communities were desperate for news after holding two online forums on Friday.
“Obviously, we’re working with people who are in the region, the Australians that we know, the roads are cut off, about 10,000 homes have been destroyed,” he told the ABC’s News Breakfast program.
He said there were no telecommunications infrastructure to the region and power’s been cut off.
“I also attended a vigil last night, with the Nepalese community in Strathfield, and obviously, there was quite a bit of despair and anxiety, in that community, but we’re doing our best to support the Tibetan and Nepalese communities here in Australia.”
He confirmed that Nepalese authorities had requested support from Australia and that eight officials had been sent, including “four crisis response team members and four consular members”.
NSW Premier Chris Minns said the state government is prepared to send emergency crews to help rescue efforts, while adding that he wanted to add to the “chorus of concern and sorrow” across Australia and the world for the “terrible scenes” in the Nepal flood zone.
“Our hearts bleed for them. I imagine their families back in Australia are incredibly worried.
Mostafa Rachwani is a Parramatta reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald. He was previously the Community Affairs reporter at Guardian Australia.Connect via email.
Carla Jaeger is a journalist for The Age. Got a tip? Email carla.jaeger@theage.com.au or message carlajaeger.62 on Signal.Connect via X or email.