For families in Kolkata, Thursday passed in a state of uncertainty as the scale of devastation in Nepal became clearer but information about their missing relatives remained scarce.
At least 32 tourists from Bengal who were travelling towards Kailash Mansarovar are among those untraced after powerful flash floods swept through parts of Nepal on Wednesday. Their families have spent hours trying to establish contact, checking helpline numbers and monitoring videos and photographs emerging from the disaster zone.
For many relatives, the absence of reliable information has proved almost as distressing as the disaster itself.
Rupama Pal, whose 61-year-old father Amarnath Pal is among the missing, said she had repeatedly contacted helplines but had received no confirmation about his whereabouts.
Amarnath, a retired government employee from Baishnabghata Patuli Township, had travelled towards Kailash Mansarovar but was not planning to undertake the full trek to the sacred mountain.
According to his daughter, he had intended to travel only up to the base camp.
The last communication from him came on Wednesday, when he sent photographs from the journey. There has been no contact since.
The family has since been watching videos and photographs from the affected areas in the hope of identifying him or receiving information from rescuers.
A fleeting moment of hope
One Kolkata family briefly believed that it had received a breakthrough when relatives and acquaintances noticed a woman in footage from the flood zone who appeared to resemble missing tourist Mousumi Ganguly.
Mousumi, along with her husband Arindam, a retired National Thermal Power Corporation official from Durgapur, had travelled for the pilgrimage.
A family friend, Debasish Thakur, said a woman visible in a social media video appeared similar to Mousumi and seemed to be among people being rescued from sludge.
The discovery initially raised hopes that Mousumi had survived.
However, her daughter remained cautious because there was no official confirmation of her identity or whereabouts.
The family continued to remain unable to contact her until Thursday evening.
The uncertainty illustrates the difficulties faced by families attempting to identify survivors while rescue operations continue amid damaged roads, disrupted communications and widespread destruction.
Families wait for contact
The relatives of other missing tourists have faced similar uncertainty.
Among them are Mou Mandal, 61, and her husband Swapan Mandal, 67, retired schoolteachers from Basirhat in North 24-Parganas.
Mou's brother, Anindya Pal, said the couple had been enthusiastic travellers and had recently visited Bali.
Their Nepal trip had been planned as a pilgrimage, and the family had remained excited about their journey until communication suddenly stopped.
Mou last spoke to her family on Tuesday while the couple were staying at a lodge.
There has been no contact since.
The family has been trying to determine whether they were moved to a safer location during the floods or whether they remain in one of the areas cut off by the disaster.
Former MLA's family also awaits news
Sarmishtha Bhowmik Roy, the wife of former Trinamool Congress MLA Subhranshu Roy, is also among those whose whereabouts remain unknown.
Subhranshu Roy, the son of late Trinamool Congress leader Mukul Roy, said the family had not received any information about Sarmishtha.
Her disappearance has added another high-profile name to the list of Bengal residents caught up in the disaster.
Like other families, the Roy family has been waiting for official confirmation from authorities involved in the rescue effort.
Group travelled from Bengal on August 21
The tourists had left for Kathmandu from Calcutta on August 21.
The group consisted of 30 tourists from Bengal along with two managers associated with the travel agency organising the trip.
The travellers came from several parts of the state, including Patuli, Netajinagar, Sonarpur, Santoshpur, Durgapur, Kharagpur, Kanchrapara and Basirhat.
A significant number of those travelling were above the age of 50.
Several were also travelling alone, making it particularly difficult for relatives to establish their whereabouts independently.
The group was travelling in connection with the Kailash Mansarovar pilgrimage, one of the most significant high-altitude religious journeys undertaken by Indian pilgrims.
The route passes through remote and mountainous terrain where communications can be fragile even under normal circumstances.
The flash floods have further complicated rescue and identification efforts.
Solo travellers add to families' anxiety
Rina Banerjee's family has been facing a similar wait.
Her nephew Doipayan Mukherjee said Banerjee had travelled alone for years and had undertaken the Nepal journey as a pilgrimage.
The family last spoke to her on Tuesday night.
She had told them that she expected to resume her journey around 7am on Wednesday.
That was the last communication they received.
With the disaster striking shortly afterwards, the family has been left trying to reconstruct her possible movements from the limited information available.
The fact that many tourists were travelling independently has made the process even more difficult, particularly because mobile and other communication networks in affected areas have been disrupted.
Former railway employee among missing
Swapan Kumar Sinha, 62, of Kharagpur, was also travelling alone.
His son Arnab said the family had contacted the Indian embassy in Kathmandu but had not received information about his father's whereabouts.
Sinha, a former railway employee, had travelled to Nepal as part of the pilgrimage.
His son and mother have continued to wait for a call that would confirm that he is safe.
For relatives in Bengal, every new photograph or video emerging from Nepal has therefore become a potential source of information.
But without official identification, even images showing apparent survivors have provided little certainty.
More Bengal tourists remain untraced
The list of missing tourists also includes Lopamudra Kundu, a 44-year-old software engineer from Sonarpur, and Anita Das, 68, from Howrah.
Their families too have been attempting to obtain information through official channels.
The situation has been particularly difficult for relatives who are hundreds of kilometres away from the disaster zone and cannot travel immediately to affected areas.
With roads damaged and rescue operations still under way, families are largely dependent on authorities and relief agencies for updates.
Parents of AIIMS student remain missing
Adrija Ghosh, a student at AIIMS Delhi, has been trying to locate her parents, Manas Kumar Ghosh and Deepali Sarkar.
She said her last conversation with them took place around 11pm on Monday.
Since then, she has been unable to establish contact.
The couple, residents of Eastern Park in Santoshpur, had travelled together to Nepal.
Adrija said the lack of information had left her unsure about whom to approach or what steps to take next.
Her situation reflects the predicament of several families who are trying multiple channels simultaneously while waiting for official confirmation.
Rescue efforts face major challenges
The continuing uncertainty surrounding the Bengal tourists is partly a consequence of the extraordinary scale of the flooding.
The disaster damaged roads, bridges and other infrastructure and disrupted communications in several affected areas.
Rescue teams have been working to reach communities cut off by floodwater, mud and debris.
Helicopters have been deployed in rescue operations, but access to some mountainous areas has remained difficult.
For families waiting in Kolkata and elsewhere in Bengal, the lack of communication has meant that even the basic question of whether a missing relative has survived cannot always be answered immediately.
The situation is further complicated by the movement of survivors to temporary shelters and rescue centres, where lists are still being compiled and verified.
Embassy and authorities coordinate response
Indian diplomatic officials have been coordinating with the Nepalese authorities to locate Indian nationals affected by the disaster.
The Indian embassy in Kathmandu has been receiving requests from families and attempting to establish contact with people in the affected areas.
The Centre has also activated emergency mechanisms to assist Indians caught in the floods.
However, officials have warned that the situation remains fluid and that information may change as rescue teams reach previously inaccessible locations.
For families, the priority remains simple: confirmation that their relatives are alive and safe.
An unbearable wait
As Thursday evening approached, the families of the 32 Bengal tourists were still waiting for definitive information.
Some had received fragments of hope from social media footage, while others had heard nothing since their relatives' last calls.
For the families of older pilgrims who travelled alone, the uncertainty has been especially difficult.
They know that rescue operations are continuing and that authorities are working to identify survivors, but every passing hour without information adds to their anxiety.
The disaster has also brought into sharp focus the risks faced by pilgrims travelling through remote Himalayan terrain, where a sudden natural disaster can cut off entire communities and sever communication almost instantly.
For now, families across Kolkata, Durgapur, Basirhat, Kharagpur, Sonarpur and other parts of Bengal remain glued to their phones, waiting for a call, a message or an official confirmation.
Until that happens, the uncertainty surrounding their loved ones continues.
