A helicopter, stolen phone, frantic road journey: How 4 UP men escaped Nepal floods

For 23-year-old Ashutosh Mani Upadhyay, his first flight was also his way out of flood-hit Nepal. He had travelled to Nepal just two months ago to work as a junior pipeline fitter at a factory in Rasuwa district. But before he could settle into his new job, he found himself being evacuated by helicopter along with five other Uttar Pradesh residents.

Rasuwa was among the worst-hit areas, though Ashutosh said he was away from the area when the floods struck. “There was a sense of fear and uncertainty everywhere in Nepal,” he recounted. “I was told to board a helicopter that would take us to a safer place.

I was excited because I had never travelled by air before. The flight lasted only a few minutes but I will remember for the rest of my life,” he added. The six were flown to a cantonment area, where they completed the necessary formalities before hiring a vehicle to travel to Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh.

Ashutosh reached his hometown of Mureri Gadwa village on Monday. For families across Uttar Pradesh, the wait for news from relatives stranded in Nepal has begun to ease. The Uttar Pradesh Relief Commissioner’s emergency helpline received calls about 22 people whose families had lost contact with them.

Families of 10 of them have since told authorities that their relatives are home and safe, an official said. Some were evacuated with the help of the Nepal government and officials stationed there, while others made their own way back.

The Indian Express spoke to those who made it home about the fear, uncertainty, and scramble to get out of the country. Krishna Pratap Singh, 45, had travelled from Aligarh to Nepal on August 21 in search of work. “I was terrified after hearing that a large number of people had been killed and property damaged just a few kilometres from where I was staying.

There was a huge rush in Kathmandu, with people from outside the city struggling to find a way back home. There was no local government official or organisation to help us,” said Singh, who works in the wood business. He said he tried to contact his family but couldn’t reach them.

“I decided to return… The family with whom I was staying also pressured me to go home. I was also afraid that the borders could be sealed,” he said. Singh said Nepalese authorities later flew him to the India-Nepal border, from where he travelled by road and entered India.

On August 27, when Raj Kumar Gautam, 44, finally managed to call his family in Maharajganj from Kathmandu, they had only one thing to tell him: Come back home immediately.