Fellow pilgrims from their tour group remain missing.
BY VEENA RAO
Atlanta, GA, August 27, 2026 — A last-minute decision to take a different route from their tour group may have saved Atlanta-area residents Mita and Hemant Parikh from the catastrophic floods that devastated the Nepal-Tibet border region this week, leaving hundreds of pilgrims and travelers missing.
Speaking to NRI Pulse Thursday while traveling by van toward Lake Manasarovar, Mita Parikh said she and her husband were part of a pilgrimage organized by Himalayan Glacier. But instead of following the group’s planned route from Kathmandu, the couple decided to fly to Lhasa and visit Mount Everest Base Camp before rejoining the others in Saga.
“We had three or four extra days,” Parikh said. “Somebody told us the route around Lhasa was very beautiful, and we wanted to see Mount Everest Base Camp.”
The alternative route was expensive, but the couple decided it was an opportunity they might never have again.
“We thought, we’re probably not going to come this way again, so why not do it?” she said. “We just decided to take that route.”
That spontaneous decision ultimately separated them from the rest of their tour group before disaster struck.
“It was a blessing for the two of us,” Parikh said. “My husband and I were the only two who separated from the group.”
The couple had planned to reunite with their fellow travelers in Saga and continue together toward Lake Manasarovar and Mount Kailash.
“We were supposed to meet everybody yesterday in Saga, and from there we would continue together as a group,” Parikh said. “But nobody arrived. We haven’t been able to get in touch with anyone.”
Himalayan Glacier has said 47 people associated with one of its groups remain unaccounted for, including travelers from the United States, Australia, Canada, Britain, Singapore and Russia, as well as Nepalese members of the group.
The pilgrimage had begun in Kathmandu, where participants arrived on different days to acclimatize before traveling toward Tibet. Parikh said members of the group participated in a havan at Pashupatinath, while some also traveled to other destinations in Nepal.
The Parikhs had spent several days sightseeing in Nepal before deciding to use their extra time to travel through Lhasa.
They were already separated from the main group when the disaster struck.
Since then, the couple has found themselves serving as an unexpected point of contact for anxious relatives searching for the missing travelers.
“We are among the only people they can contact besides the tour company’s CEO and staff,” Parikh said. “Family members keep calling us and asking, ‘Do you have any news?’”
But the couple has no answers.
“I have also been trying to call people in the group, hoping somebody will answer or that somebody’s phone will connect,” she said. “But so far, nothing.”
Himalayan Glacier founder and CEO Sagar Pandey has told media that he flew by helicopter over the affected region in an effort to locate the group but was unable to land.
Parikh said families have also been trying to piece together the group’s possible location, including attempting to determine where the vehicles carrying the pilgrims might have been when the flooding occurred.
Meanwhile, Mita and Hemant are continuing toward Lake Manasarovar with members of the support crew who had reached the area ahead of the main group.
Normally, the cooks, guide and other support staff would travel separately from the pilgrims. With the rest of the group absent, however, everyone is now traveling together in a single van, Parikh said.
The Parikhs are still following their original itinerary for now but are considering cutting the pilgrimage short.
“We don’t really feel like continuing under these circumstances,” Parikh said. “If we could just hear that somebody is safe, it would make a difference. Right now, we don’t know anything.”
For the Atlanta couple, a decision made simply to see more of the region has assumed an entirely different significance.
“We just decided to take that route,” Parikh said. “It was a blessing for the two of us.”
