Ganesh Bahadur Singh of Tali village, Kushe Rural Municipality-2 of Jajarkot spends the whole day in the Dharali Bagar. Along with a team of Indian security personnel who are searching for the missing persons, they wandered all day long and reached the camp in the evening looking for a place to stay. Sometimes Harshil reaches a place where internet works well, two/three kilometers away from Dharali to contact his family. Once a day he reaches Harshil and chats at home.

After a cloud burst in Harshil area of Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand, India two weeks ago, the severe flood in the river Kheerganga has turned the Dharali market into a flood. There, 21 Nepalis including 65-year-old Karna Bahadur Singh, brother of Ganesh, are missing in the flood. He said that only 5 people from Ganesh's village were missing due to flood.

According to him, along with Karna, Man Bahadur Singh, Ram Bahadur Singh, Neem Bahadur Singh and Robin Singh are missing. "We spend the whole day in the search team, we search for shelter after evening," said Singh, "Our daily life has been like this since the flood." His son-in-law Bhupendra Shahi from Jajarkot is also with us. Like them, the situation of all Nepalis in Dharali is similar. They used to spend the whole day wandering around in the hope that their missing relatives would be found.

On the one hand they have the pain of missing relatives and on the other hand they don't even have the money to go back home. Now the search for the missing has not slowed down. "Until now, not a single person has been found missing," Shahi said, "holes have been dug in places, dogs sniff, look and go to another place, this is what is happening." 

After the flood, all the Nepalese who went to the area for employment have become unemployed. Nepali people have become more and more stranded after the flood washed away all their clothes and rations along with their wages and they could not even find work.

"Now we want to return home, but how can we get from here," said Prakash Budha of Kailali Tikapur, who is in Dharali, "It is not even possible to walk." Prakash's brother Ramesh and daughter-in-law Priya are missing in the flood. Like Ganesha, he also roams the streets all day with a team of security personnel to search for his brother. After evening, they eat in the community kitchen and sleep in the hut made to store apples.

21 Nepalis are missing due to flood in Dharali area, according to the Nepali Embassy in Delhi. But the people living there complain that the embassy does not care about the situation of other Nepalis in that area. Those who want to return home are also stuck due to road problems and lack of expenses.

Now the Nepalese who are in the area have been provided with food in the community kitchen by the local administration, but the old man says that there are many problems to stay. There are still 1/150 Nepali people in Dharali area. Half of them were doing agricultural work in the same area and half were doing wage labour.

Nepalis have started returning

Nepalis who came to Dharali and Gangotri areas for wage labor have started returning home due to floods. Nepali workers have started returning home after the Gangotri Yatra was also stopped due to road blockage. Bhupendra Shahi of Jajarkot who is in Dharali said, "Many of the Nepalis in Gangotri area have already returned home, and some are preparing to return," said, "The journey has stopped, they are about to return as they are having problems even getting food due to the road being blocked." 

According to him, even the Nepalese in Dharali area have started returning home. "Even though the bodies of the relatives of the missing family are still there, they are hoping to find them, while others are about to return home," said Prakash Budha of Tikapur. "Seven people from Tikapur left here in the morning."

In Harsheel area, the roads are blocked due to floods and landslides, and the means of transport are not running. Budha says that traffic is blocked in other places as well. 

'Now we will also look for one/two days, otherwise we have to return home and do kiriya,' the old man said, 'There is no cost to return, if we could have worked for one/two days, we would have earned the travel expenses, but we have not found work here.'

Gangotri Yatra runs from Baisakh/May to October/October. Earnings are very good at the beginning and end of the season. In that area, one and a half thousand Nepalis work in the hotel and agricultural sectors, from carrying heavy goods. When it goes well, you can earn up to 2/5000 in a day. Shahi says that even in the middle of the season, 5/700 bharu will be earned.