Retired Bengal couple returns from Nepal, recounts narrow escape
The group turned back from around one-and-a-half hours driving distance from Rasuwa, which the flood tore through on August 26, the couple told reporters.
Anukul Poddar and his wife Reba Roy Poddar, retired schoolteachers from Basirhat in West Bengal, returned home on Sunday after surviving a deadly flash flood in Nepal. The couple were part of a group of 17 pilgrims on the Mansarovar Yatra, traveling with a travel agency. Their tour manager received news of the disaster, prompting the driver to swiftly reverse the vehicle.
The group had traveled around 150 kilometers from Rasuwa, which was devastated by the flood on August 26. Reba recalled seeing water cascading down a hillside and white smoke moving down a river, while the driver carefully maneuvered the vehicle to higher ground. Upon learning that a bridge on their route to the immigration office had been washed away, cutting off their journey, they turned back.
The group reached Birgunj, a town bordering Bihar in Nepal, on Friday. While authorities advised them to fly to Kolkata, the Poddars chose to return home by train instead. They arrived at Howrah station on Sunday and were met by a team from the Basirhat police station, who escorted them home under state government arrangements. Another retired couple from Basirhat, Swapan Mondal and his wife Mou Mondal, who were on the same trip with a different travel agency, are still missing.
Written by urgent.news from Hindustan Times's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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