They left UP to work on Nepal’s biggest hydropower projects. Then the floods struck

“When she called Ravish in the afternoon after finishing her work, his phone was unreachable. She tried several times but could not get through,” he said.

Two to three hours later, the family learned about the floods in Nepal. “My sister-in-law has been upset that she could not answer Ravish’s call that morning. Since August 26, she has made hundreds of calls, hoping that he would pick up,” Ajay said.

They had last seen Ravish two months ago when he came home to see his wife and two children. Ravish’s younger brother, Raj Kumar Singh, left for Nepal on Friday to search for him. “We are in contact with the company he worked for, but they haven’t been able to provide any information about him,” Ajay said.

Even calls to designated helpline numbers have yielded nothing.

In Kushinagar, Karan’s wife and children are facing a similar wait.

He had come home in June for 15 days after his father developed a heart problem. “Karan would call us regularly… On the day the floods hit, we could not contact him. Then his phone was switched off,” said his brother, Shiv Karan Sharma. 

He, too, has travelled to Nepal to look for his brother.

24 hours of silence, 2 still missing

On Wednesday, Ashok Kumar Chaurasia called his daughter Shivani in a panic. The floodwaters around their home in Nuwakot were rising, he told her, and he feared the situation could worsen.

Then the call was abruptly cut off.

For the next 24 hours, there was no word from Ashok. He and his brother, Panna Lal, had run a clothing shop in the district for nearly four decades.

Ashok’s two daughters, living in Uttar Pradesh’s Ballia and Varanasi, watched news of the floods in mounting alarm.

The sisters called relatives, tried their family’s phones again and again, and waited for any sign that their father and six other members of their family — their mother, two brothers, and uncle’s family — in Nepal were safe.

Then, on Thursday evening, Diksha Chaurasia, Ashok’s eldest daughter, saw her brother Saurabh on a news channel. “That was the first moment I felt some relief that someone in my family was safe,” she said.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Diksha, 28, said, “Initially, no one could be contacted. Later, I spoke to people there and learned that the area around Trishuli, where our house and shop are located, had been flooded.”

Diksha eventually managed to get in touch with her father through several sources. Ashok told her that their house, shops and godown had been swept away by the floodwaters.

Then came the news that two members of the family were still missing.

“He told me that all the family members had been traced except our aunt, Usha Devi, and her son Rahul, who are still missing,” Diksha said.

The family had been left with little more than the clothes they were wearing, with no food or safe drinking water. “When I told my father that several news channels had reported that the Indian government was sending relief supplies, he told me that they had not received any assistance,” Diksha said.

She said she then called the emergency helpline set up by the government and informed officials about her father’s situation. “I told them about the difficulties my family was facing and requested help.”

For the sisters, the ordeal also meant missing a family ritual they had expected to share with their brothers. “We are saddened that our brothers couldn’t come home for Raksha Bandhan,” Diksha said.