Tek Bishwakarma, 32, had gone to the Kedarnath area in India on April 16 after receiving a recommendation letter from the district administration office. Bishwakarma, a resident of Khandachakra Municipality-2 in Kalikot, was supposed to return home during Dashain, the greatest Hindu festival that falls in October this year, with the earnings he managed to save as a daily wage earner. But Tek would never return.

Tek and two other youths from Khandachakra died when a landslide swept away a hotel they were staying in at Gaurikund, India, on Thursday night, according to Dharma Raj Tamrakar, the ward chairman of Khandachakra-1. Prakash Tamrakar, 39, of Khandachakra-1, and Debi Bishwakarma, 38, of Khandachakra-2, also perished in India's landslide.

“The impoverished families of the deceased migrant workers are in deep mourning,” the ward chief said. “Their children and other family members are left in lurch. There is not even a person who could go to India to receive a body.”

Tek is survived by his two children, wife and elderly parents. Both of his father and mother, who have been suffering from asthma, are almost bed-ridden. Food grains produced from his field are hardly enough for about three months to his six-member family. Tek used to go to the Kedarnath area for work and managed the family expenses with the income he earned there as the wage worker.

“I talked to him [Tek] a few days ago over the telephone,” Tek’s wife Bhadda BK said. “I said he would earn some money and return home during Dashain. Now I hear this sad news.”

At least 19 people went missing after a landslide washed away three hotels in Gaurikund, a pilgrimage site that serves as a basecamp for a trek to Kedarnath, a revered Hindu temple in Uttarakhand state of India. According to Indian media, most of the missing are Nepali workers.

Debi Bishwakarma of Dhainedi in Khandachakra-2 decided to go to the Kedarnath area a year ago as he could not earn well while working as a daily wage worker at Tihi, India. He used to carry devotees and tourists visiting Kedarnath Temple in a palanquin. “His wife Jhuma has been in a semi-unconscious state when she heard the tragedy,” said Nara Bahadur Bishwakarma, a teacher at the local school.

Prakash, who went to the Kedarnath area in October, worked in the area as a porter. According to Nande Kami of Bharta in Kalikot, who has also been working in the Kedarnath area, Prakash descended to Gaurikund on Thursday evening and stayed in the hotel. Nande stayed in another hotel which is around 300 metres away from the one swept away by the landslide. Nande informed through his social media that nine bodies have been recovered from the incident site so far.

The migrant workers who were struck by the landslide are from Kalikot, Jumla and Humla districts. Amar Bohara of Chaurgaun in Patarasi Rural Municipality-3 in Jumla, his wife and their five children went missing in the landslide. According to the local people, Amar was engaged in the trade of medicinal herbs in Jumla. But he went to India with his family as he was in debt. Four other youths of Patarasi also went missing in the tragedy.

Chaurgaun is now in mourning as nine of the villagers perished in the landslides. There are a total of 219 households in Chaurgaun. “People from more than 70 families went to India for work. The youths have no alternative to go to India for livelihood after Yarsagumba and other medicinal herbs are not found in the highlands for the past few years,” said Padam Bahadur Rawat, a local of Chaurgaun.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister NP Saud on Saturday requested the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand to rescue Nepalis missing in the landslide. The foreign minister held a telephonic conversation with Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and urged for a speedy search and rescue. Chief Minister Dhami told Foreign Minister Saud that security personnel were deployed to search for the missing persons, according to the foreign minister’s secretariat.

On Friday, Foreign Minister Saud directed the Nepali Embassy in New Delhi to coordinate with the Indian government to leave no stone unturned for the search and rescue of missing Nepalis and relief to those affected by the landslide.

Published on: 7 August 2023 | The Kathmandu Post