Mumbai: They had escaped a monstrous Himalayan disaster just a week before. Then, on their way back to Kathmandu, the 54 members of the Panvel-based Pratibha Astrology group found themselves staring at another — a landslide that came crashing down directly in front of their bus.The group, who returned to Mumbai from Kathmandu on Thursday, said the incident was another frightening reminder of how precarious their journey had become after the flash-flood tragedy near the China-Nepal border.Their return itself was an ordeal: an alternative route from the Kailash side towards Kathmandu took nearly 18 hours to cover around 500km, with the group encountering stretches where, they said, “the road did not even exist”. Sherpas and local residents helped the pilgrims negotiate difficult sections of the high-altitude terrain especially where the landslide occurred and the roads were non existent.Meanwhile, the search and identification efforts for those still missing continue. Of the 64 Maharashtra residents reported missing, DNA samples from relatives of 51 have been collected so far. Relatives of 13 missing persons are yet to provide samples, with some reportedly travelling abroad. Most of those still missing belong to the Hills and Trails group led by Dr Milind Chitale.Dipti Dilip Bhosle (62), a retired teacher from Sangli who was part of the 54-member group, said their return journey from Saga to Kathmandu via Nyalam and Tatopani where landslide occured, brought back the scare they had missed a week before. “Along the routes the rivers were swollen and furious and the roads were at times excessively bumpy,” she said.For the group, the journey had acquired a chilling significance even before they began their return. Their China visa had arrived just in time a day before the disaster. Had it been delayed by a day, they said, they could have been at Timure on the morning of August 26, when the flash flood devastated the Timure-Rasuwagadhi border area.The 54 pilgrims had already crossed Kyirong and moved farther uphill towards Kailash when news of the devastation reached them. The reports left the group shaken and forced changes to both their onward and return plans.At Saga, around 230km beyond Timure on the China side, altitude and oxygen levels became another major concern. Bhosle said the group spent nearly three days there, including two days resting, to acclimatise before proceeding towards Kailash.The pilgrims eventually reached Kailash, but had to curtail their pradakshina midway after sherpas warned them about dangerously low oxygen levels. They had, however, completed darshan at Mansarovar.The return journey then brought its own test. As the bus made its way towards Kathmandu through the alternative route, the sudden landslide blocked its path. For passengers who had already narrowly escaped the flash-flood disaster, the sight of debris falling across the road was another moment of fear.For the 54 pilgrims who made it back, reaching Kathmandu was therefore not simply the end of a difficult return journey. It was the culmination of a series of narrow escapes — from a flash flood they narrowly missed, to oxygen-starved heights, treacherous mountain tracks and finally a landslide that came down in their path.
