Hindu pilgrims, on arduous trek, among Nepal's missing

A drone view shows a major section of Pasang Lhamu highway washed away along swollen Trishuli river by recent flash floods cutting off Rasuwa district from Nuwakot area, Nepal, Monday, Aug. 31, 2026. Rajesh Kumar Singh/AP hide caption

SOCORRO, India – Two sisters sit on chairs, apparently stunned.

In halting sentences, in an Instagram post , they explain: "Our parents Shubhakshi and Sumit were in Nepal," one young woman, who introduces herself as Varnika says, "when the floods hit."

Since the devastating floods in Nepal last Wednesday, social media has been awash with appeals from people searching for their loved ones. Most posts include photographs of those missing people, with phone numbers to call for more information.

Many had one thing in common: they were pilgrims on a sacred journey to Mount Kailash, a Himalayan peak located in Chinese-held Tibet, and at the moment of disaster they were at, or near to, a once-popular border crossing, one of the worst impacted locations.

Deadly incidents at pilgrimages are not unusual: from a stampede at a religious gathering known as the Kumbh Mela in India that killed more than 30 people in 2025, to a panicked crush in the Muslim holy city of Mecca during the Hajj that killed more than 2,400 people in 2015 .

But a flood sweeping away worshippers on pilgrimages centered in the Himalayas is rare. Even more so that it was triggered, in part, by climate change—an ominous sign for the future of pilgrimages in the region.

It's unclear how many pilgrims remain unaccounted for by local authorities, but they appear to be a large cohort among the 853 foreigners that China and Nepal have reported as missing.