Kolkata: Family members of Bengal tourists missing in the Nepal flash flood visited the disaster site and several hospitals on Wednesday before submitting DNA samples to the Nepal authorities for identification.They said according to the information that was available so far the 32-member Chalo Jai Travel Club group may have been swept away when two buses were washed away near the Friendship Bridge on Aug 26.“This detail aligns with the information shared by the Indian Embassy as well. The two buses were completely washed away by the flood,” said Sneha Banerjee, daughter of Durgapur residents, Debasish Banerjee and Sanghamitra Banerjee, who are among the missing tourists.Sneha, her husband and six other relatives from four families travelled from Kolkata to Kathmandu on Tuesday with officials of the travel group. The relatives, included Sneha and her husband; family members of Baruipur residents Nikhil Ranjan Biswas and Shikha Naskar Biswas; Rajarshi Roy Chowdhury, son of New Town residents Debabrata Roy Chowdhury and Lekha Roy Chowdhury; and Ushnish, son of Basirhat residents, Swapan and Mou Mondal. After reaching Kathmandu, the families visited major hospitals, including Teaching Hospital, Kathmandu Trauma Center and Bir Hospital, and checked casualty and injury lists. Most of the names on the lists were of Nepalese nationals, they said.They later visited the Indian Embassy, where two disaster-response officers briefed them on the sequence of events and the location of the buses.According to Sneha, embassy officials told the families that the travel group had been near the Chinese immigration point and that none of the Indian tourists had crossed into China on Aug 26. The families were told this made it unlikely that the tourists were stranded on the Chinese side.They were also told that the 32 tourists had checked out and proceeded on foot towards the Chinese immigration centre.“We spent the day (Wednesday) providing samples at the Nepal Police Hospital for DNA identification,” Sneha said. She said people, who could not travel to Nepal, would be able to complete the required procedures through email. Since members of the four families were already in Nepal, they provided their samples in person.The 32 tourists from Bengal, including 30 travellers and two tour managers, have been unaccounted for since the flash flood.
