Two Hyderabad-Origin Women Missing in Nepal Flash Floods During Pilgrimage

Two Hyderabad-origin women, Kandimalla Suhasini Reddy and Vandana Chand, have gone missing after flash floods struck Nepal on Wednesday during separate pilgrimage trips to Manasarovar.

Suhasini Reddy, 44, a New Zealand citizen and mother of two, was among five people from New Zealand reported missing. According to her parents, she had travelled with a friend as part of a tourism group arranged by the Kailash Journey travel agency.

Her father, Mahender Reddy, said they last communicated on Tuesday night. She told her family that she would head to the immigration centre at the Chinese border on Wednesday morning around 8 am or 9 am, noting that their phones might be unreachable in the border area.

According to the Nepal Tourism Board, Suhasini's tour group included 31 travellers, consisting of five Nepalis and 26 other individuals whose nationalities have not been confirmed. The travel agency informed the New Zealand High Commission at 9.30 am on Wednesday that the entire group was unaccounted for.

Meanwhile, 49-year-old Vandana Chand, a United States citizen originally from Hyderabad, went missing while on a Manasarovar pilgrimage with an Isha group. Her relative, Piyush Jain, stated that she had travelled from Richmond, Virginia, for the journey.

Jain said Vandana was last known to be at the Gyirong Tibet Immigration Office. He reached out to several authorities, including officials at Telangana Bhavan in New Delhi, seeking assistance to establish contact, but had not received a response.

Isha Foundation founder Jaggi Vasudev said in a video on his YouTube channel that the group consisted of 80 people, along with three volunteers and a doctor. The group included 22 members from the United States, 12 from Canada, 11 from Australia, nine from the United Kingdom, four from Germany, three each from France and Nepal, two each from the Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, and Spain, and one each from Finland, Hungary, Israel, Lithuania, the Philippines, Portugal, Russia, and South Africa.

Vasudev noted that the foundation last heard from the group leader, Praveen, at 9.05 am, confirming they had arrived at the immigration building. The flood struck nine minutes later at 9.14 am while the entire group was inside the building.