Huge rock fell near city Everester’s camp

Hyderabad: Telangana and Andhra Pradesh governments have decided to bring back stranded Telugus via road as Indians from other northern states are more in number and Indian Air Force is giving priority to them. The governments have now sent four vehicles to pick up the stranded victims, officials said.

“The people will be brought to Gorakhpur via road and will be given train tickets to their respective places,” officials from Andhra Pradesh Bhavan said.

Read: Nepal earthquake: 60 students from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh return home

A 12-member team of mountaineers, who got stuck at base camp talked to Deccan Chronicle about their experience. Shekhar Babu Bachinepally, a techie from Hyderabad, who was leading the expedition, said they experienced multiple tremors at Mt Everest Base Camp at 5,300 meters and Advance Base Camp at 6,400 meters during the last three days.

“On the first day, we were sitting on a chair in our kitchen tent at Base Camp, and that’s when we felt the first tremor. The quake increased, and we came out of the kitchen. As we realised it was an earthquake, we saw a huge rock falling on a ridge beside the camp. Luckily it did not do any damage to our settlement,” said Mr Bachinepally.

He said there are sufficient supplies required for the next 15-20 days for all the teams as they had prepared for a 65-day expedition. All the team members are in good health and safe at Base Camp.

Read: Nepal earthquake: Hours spent under tents, recalls Telangana resident

The other group members said that there has been unusual snowfall on the region after the earthquake. The team is now stranded there as most of the roads to Kathmandu are either blocked or damaged.  

The team is trying to reach Nepal capital via a Chinese province with the help of border officials. The team reached Kathmandu on April 6 and has proceeded towards Zangmu in China on the North Col Route. While two people are Telugus in the team, the rest are from Delhi, Maharashtra, UK, and Denmark.