Mysuru: “It is a rebirth for us,” said the couple from Mysuru who were stranded at Simikot in Nepal, along with several other pilgrims during their Mansarovar trip due to inclement weather and finally reached Mysuru Sunday morning. Sixty-year-old Manjegowda, a retired KSRTC bus conductor and his wife, 56-year-old Chandrakala, residents of Bogadi here, are the couple.
They were among 244 pilgrims including 217 pilgrims from Karnataka, who had travelled through Shankara Yatra, the tour agency.
Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, Mr Manjegowda said, “We were stranded in Simikot from June 30 night to the morning of July 6. We were evacuated in an Army helicopter from Simikot to Surkhet on Friday. From there, we were taken to Nepalganj and Kathmandu. We boarded a flight from Kathmandu to Bengaluru on Saturday evening and reached Mysuru on Sunday morning. We were kept in a very filthy boarding place in a narrow lane at Simikot and the food provided was very bad which we couldn't even eat. I am a BP patient, my wife suffers from BP and diabetes, there was absolutely no medical facility available. Our bags were stuck with another batch, so we didn't even have enough medicines or clothes. The entire area in Simikot was covered with mist. The authorities from Mysuru contacted the embassy officials who took special care to evacuate us. It is indeed a rebirth,” he recalled. According to Mysuru Deputy Commissioner Abhiram G Shankar, Pranav Ganesh at the Indian embassy in Kathmandu has stated that they had evacuated all pilgrims stranded at Simikot as well as Hilsa in Nepal.
Though they had handled a similar situation in 2016, this time, the number of pilgrims was three to four times more.
