24 tourists without contact

 

POKHARA, Oct 12: Tourists who are in trouble are being rescued in the Annapurna base camp area of the Himalayan region. Due to continuous rain and bad weather, the tourists were stranded in the middle of the trek. According to tourism professionals, about 24 tourists who went to different areas are in a state of contactless ness.

Ashok Subedi, head of Annapurna Conservation Area Unit Office Mustang, informed that the rescue operation of the tourists who reached Dhaulagiri base camp is underway.

"Those in trouble are being rescued, action is being taken," he said. He says that the landslides in Jomsom have also made tourists uncomfortable. Subedi said that tourists were not stranded because of the landslide.

Even though about seven hundred tourists had left for the West Himalaya region through various companies before Dashain, the Nepal Trekking Agencies Association of Nepal (TAAN) does not have the exact statistics of how many foreign tourists had gone to which region. Sushilraj Poudel, president of TAAN , said that he was not sure how many people were on the Dhaulagiri trek. There is no detailed information about them who went from different companies. Foreigners who went to Dhaulagiri circuit are in trouble. There is no contact with them," he said. He said that nine people including three Indians who left the company, five Nepali helpers and one guide are not in contact now. Poudel says that they were supposed to return to Pokhara by Sunday, but they have not been contacted.

There is a Japanese camp between the Italian camp and the Dhaulagiri camp on the Dhaulagiri trekking route, where there is no contact by any means.

It is estimated that around 20/25 foreign tourists are without contact in Manaslu, Annapurna and Dhaulagiri circuits. Chief Subedi informed that helicopters from Simrik Air, Air Dynasty, Kailash Air and others were deployed to rescue tourists who had reached the Himalayan circuit. Due to incessant rain and snowfall in the high Himalayas, tourists have been left stranded and without contact.