They went to Mount Kailash. Then calls stopped: Indian-Americans missing after Nepal floods

The couple, who have lived in New Zealand for about 30 years, had travelled from New Zealand to Kathmandu before setting out for the Kailash Mansarovar pilgrimage. Kinnari had told her family she planned to visit Kailash before returning to India for Raksha Bandhan. They set out on August 21. They have not been heard from since, according to Kinnari’s brother Chirag Patel, who spoke to news agency ANI.

Vadodara Couple Missing in Nepal Floods! Family Hopes for Safe Return

Kinnari Patel and Mihir Patel, originally from Vadodara and living in New Zealand for 30 years, are missing amid Nepal’s flash floods. They had travelled via Singapore for the Kailash Mansarovar pilgrimage and… pic.twitter.com/OvudoFgg3a

— Our Vadodara (@ourvadodara) August 27, 2026

In the United States, Shashidharan Sreedharan has spent the past two days trying to find his wife Rekha and their 14-year-old daughter Rashi, who were returning from their Mount Kailash pilgrimage when the floods struck the Nepal-Tibet border region.

Also Read | Nepal Flash Flood Live Updates

“We are desperately waiting for any good news about their whereabouts,” Sreedharan told ANI, saying the family last spoke to them on August 26.

#WATCH | New York, USA: On his wife and daughter being missing in the Nepal flash flood, a local, Shashidharan Sreedharan, says, “My wife and my 14-year-old daughter were two of the many pilgrims who went on the Mount Kailash trip…we are desperately waiting for any good news… pic.twitter.com/ALTvqOP4Is

— ANI (@ANI) August 28, 2026

And for another Indian-origin family in the US, the last call came just hours before the disaster.

Venus Rajnikant Patel, a 45-year-old Indian-born US citizen, had called his brother and parents from his hotel on the Nepalese side of the border. He showed them his room and spoke about how excited he was to cross into Tibet. He had been planning the pilgrimage for two years, according to his brother Dennis Patel, the Associated Press reported.

Then the flash flood swept through the area.

These families are among many across India and the US waiting for news of relatives caught in the devastating floods along the Nepal-Tibet border. Around 320 Indian nationals remain uncontactable, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Friday. Around 400 Indian nationals on the Chinese side of the border are safe and in touch with their families, while another 96 who had been stranded there have crossed into Nepal by land, the ministry said.

The MEA also said around 100 people of Indian origin holding other nationalities remain uncontactable.

The figures are still being reconciled as authorities receive information from different sources and work to establish who has been rescued, who remains stranded and who is still unaccounted for.

21 Indian pilgrims return to Delhi

There was some relief for families on Friday when 21 Indian nationals from Tamil Nadu who had travelled to Nepal for the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra returned to India after being rescued. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar received them at Delhi airport.

The MEA had earlier said that 63 Indian nationals working at the Trishuli-1 hydropower project had also been rescued. Another 96 Indians who had been stranded on the Chinese side subsequently crossed into Nepal by land.

The latest developments have provided some relief to families, but hundreds of Indians and people of Indian origin are still waiting for confirmation that their relatives are safe.

Indian-Americans among about 90 Americans unaccounted for

The Indian-American dimension extends beyond individual families. US officials said about 90 American citizens remained unaccounted for after the floods, the AP reported. The US State Department said it was not aware of any American deaths and that three Americans had been rescued. Many of those unaccounted for were on pilgrimages to Mount Kailash.

Among them is Venus Patel, the Indian-born US citizen whose family had spoken to him shortly before the floods.

Another is 72-year-old Jitendra Patel, a Long Island resident travelling with a Hindu pilgrimage group to Mount Kailash, according to his son Sunny Patel.

This photo provided by Jolene Gosha shows Venus Patel, left, walking his friend, Pratik Jhaveri, centre, down the wedding aisle in Collinsville, Ill., June 18, 2022. (AP)

Jitendra last contacted his family on WhatsApp on Wednesday morning local time to say that he had crossed into Tibet. His son later learned that his father had been in the area hit by the flooding. Messages sent to Jitendra have not been delivered, AP reported.

Nepal’s Consul General in New York, Dadhiram Bhandari, told ANI that families of several Americans of Indian origin had contacted the consulate. Information about more than 25 missing US citizens had been passed to Nepal’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he said, adding that most appeared to be of Indian origin.

22 Americans linked to Isha Foundation unaccounted for

The Isha Foundation, an India-based spiritual organisation founded by Jaggi Vasudev, also known as Sadhguru, has been trying to establish the whereabouts of people travelling with its pilgrimage groups.

Sadhguru said in a post on X that 77 people returning from Mount Kailash with groups organised by the foundation were at an immigration centre in Gyirong, Tibet, when the floods struck.

Leslie Crespi, a community liaison for the foundation’s US campus, told the AP that 22 of those people were Americans affiliated with the foundation. Three volunteers supporting the trekkers were also at the immigration centre when the flood hit.

U.S. citizen Deepak Dandu said his wife, Sridevi Vejella, is among those missing in Nepal after a catastrophic, deadly torrent of floods and mud swept through several communities following a glacial collapse on Wednesday.

Vejella had just finished a pilgrimage to Mount Kailash,… pic.twitter.com/oWAqL6m1WB

— CBS News (@CBSNews) August 28, 2026

Crespi said the foundation had communicated with the group coordinator at about 9:05 am Nepal time, when the group had arrived at the immigration centre. About nine minutes later, the flash flood hit.

The Isha Foundation is based in India, while its US campus, the Isha Institute of Inner-sciences, is a yoga and meditation retreat centre near McMinnville, Tennessee.

The disaster is still unfolding

The search for missing Indians and Indian-Americans is taking place amid an enormous rescue operation across the Nepal-Tibet border.

Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority said the death toll had reached 538 on Friday, with 977 people still missing. Nepal Police later put the death toll at 547. China said five people had died and 558 remained missing in Tibet. The different figures are being updated as authorities continue search and verification operations.

In Tibet’s Gyirong county, Chinese authorities said 260 of those missing had been identified as foreign nationals, although their nationalities had not been released.

Chinese authorities also temporarily suspended rescue operations because of the threat from a newly formed barrier lake upstream. By Friday afternoon, officials assessed the risk as manageable and rescue operations resumed.

The lake had accumulated about 2 million cubic metres of water, with another 3 million cubic metres potentially flowing into it over the following three days, according to Chinese authorities.

The flooding has been linked to a glacier collapse in the Himalayas, although scientists are still examining the precise sequence of events that produced the catastrophic surge.

(With inputs from ANI, AP)