Violent floods and landslides in Nepal since the last three days have claimed 55 lives, leaving nearly 700 tourists stranded including 200 Indian tourists, as declared by officials today.
The floods have lashed Nepal after Himalayan rivers rose much beyond the danger mark, causing landslides and floods in several places in the nation.
One of the rivers, Rapti, flowing through a vast portion of Nepal towards the southern plains have flooded human settlements and has not spared even the hotels popular among the tourists arriving here. The region of central Chitwan Valley have been impacted to the maximum extent.
This valley provides shelter to the first national park of Nepal.
Over 100 hotels have been partially submerged in Chitwan. And, more than 1,000 homes have been inundated in the Parsa district that is located further south, as reported by one of the news media platforms.
About 700 tourists have been stranded in Sauraha in the Chitwan National Park and out of them 200 were from India. The rest of the people were Nepalese citizens.
Suman Ghimire, chairman, Regional Hotel Association said that the tourists had been trapped by floods in Chitwan.
However, efforts are on to rescue them, with the assistance of boats and elephants. A hotelier has said that the home ministry of Nepal have been approached for procuring Government aide to assist the victims in combating this major issue.
According to the authorities, at least 49 people have died on account of the landslides and floods till Sunday afternoon. And, 36 people were reportedly missing till now. In addition, six members of a family have been killed in Makawanpur district based in the central part of Nepal as a consequence of a landslide.
Narayan Prasad Bhatta, the Chief District Officer of Chitwan said that four rubber rafts have been requested from the neighbouring region of Devghat administration to undertake rescue operations. The meteorological department forecast asserted that the western and central plains were likely to get a greater amount of rainfall over the following few days.
It added that the monsoon had been getting weaker in the east and progressing towards the west.
So far, twenty one districts have been badly impacted due to the landslides and incessant rains leading to the floods. One of the newspapers of Nepal also mentioned that medical professionals have been warned of water-borne epidemics in the flood-affected regions.
Transportation through the East West Highway that represents the longest in the country had been suspended after a connecting bridge was washed away in the floods.
The Nepal government Cabinet held an emergency meeting on Sunday and Sher Bahadur Deuba ordered district officials to intensify the rescue operations.
