Nepal floods missing family
Day six, and there is still no word on Rishabh. Rishabh Iyer was traveling from Nepal with his parents, Sreedharan and Lakshmi, and younger brother Rudra, when the devastating floods struck. The family remains missing, and back here in Sydney, friends are desperately waiting for news. The areas where they were last seen are difficult to access, and there are growing calls for more people, equipment, and resources to physically get into these locations and continue the search.
Six days without answers is an agonizing wait. Among those following every development is Sarada Viswanathan, a close friend of Rishabh and his family, who joins me today.
Pawan Luthra: Hi Sarada.
Sarada Viswanathan: Hi. Thanks for having me today.
Pawan Luthra: Sarada, you have something to share today?
Sarada Viswanathan: Yeah, so we’ve had a recent development that another group member that was traveling with Sreedhar Uncle and his family, they had their last telephone ping at a cellular tower on Wednesday at 2:30 PM, which is about six or five hours after the flood hit.
So this is a really positive new development that we’ve had, and we’re hoping to trace it and get to more positive leads with this. But as of right now, we’re unable to get more information from the government regarding tracking those cellular phones. We know that they were with the Optus network, but due to privacy laws, it’s very difficult for us to obtain. But this… Nepal floods missing famil y
Pawan Luthra: … is a matter of survival. So there was a ping heard from a phone last Wednesday – and today is Tuesday. Has anybody tried to help with location guide of where the phone could have been?
Sarada Viswanathan: No, we’re unable to get any official help with this. Although, we know that, like you said, it’s a life and death situation, and if we knew where they were and where the phones last pinged, that would be a really positive lead for us to follow up. And we know that the location at which it pinged was higher up in the northern area, so we’re hoping that they heard the floods coming and they were able to run up. But as of yet, we’re still not sure about the rest of the phones within the family that, you know, I’m very close with, or any of the other phones. We’re not sure about the Jeep tracking or we’re not even sure whether they’d left the hotel or where they were. It’s just a very unclear situation with not a lot of clarity at all for us.
Pawan Luthra: But the phone ping is a good lead. Do you think there’ve been adequate resources, for the people to do the right searching, or do you think there could be more resources put into this? Nepal floods missing family
Sarada Viswanathan: Look, I think it’s a hard situation because tthe location that they were last seen, which is in the Syabrubesi region, is extremely cut off at the moment. There’s no roads that lead there. There’s barely any communication networks. I think they’ve brought up the telephone networks today morning. But now it’s day seven, we can assume that their phones are dead. B
I think that because it’s such a remote area, the only way you can really explore is by helicopter, and we need manned rescue teams, search and rescue teams to go there as well. So I think that they’re doing the best that they can, the Nepalese government, with the resources that they have. But due to just how catastrophic this disaster has been, I think that we need to help them a bit more, and that needs to be from the Australian government because these are our people that are going out there.
Pawan Luthra: The family itself, you know them quite well – Sreedharan, Lakshmi, Rishabh and Rudra. Can you give us a little bit more about their personality and who they are?
Sarada Viswanathan: Yeah. If I had to describe them in one word, the whole family would just be caring. I think that’s how we all know them. That’s how I know them, that’s how my family knows them, that’s how all of our friends know them.
They do so much for the community, especially Sreedhar uncle and Lakshmi Aunty, they’re well-versed with the Tamil and Malayali community in Sydney. Rishabh and Rudra are medical students. Rishab was due to graduate medical school at the end of this year, and they both have a lifetime ahead of them of serving the Australian community.
Pawan Luthra: Is he enjoying doing medicine?
Sarada Viswanathan: Yeah, yeah, he loves it. It’s his true calling, and that’s what I’m saying is, like, he has a whole life, and they both have whole lives ahead of them of serving the community. Lakshmi Aunty and Sreedhar mama have a childcare that they run themselves, so they look after little children.
And Lakshmi Aunty used to work at a school as a teacher for children with special needs, and that’s just… Like, all the ways that, you know, they support the community and the things that they do for us, and we need to give back to them during this time.
Pawan Luthra: When was the last time you spoke to Rishabh? Was he texting you and messaging you regularly during this trip?
Sarada Viswanathan: Yeah, as much as they could. I mean, he said that the connection was quite spotty, and he mentioned on Tuesday that the roads were closed. Even before the floods, he said the connection wasn’t the best. Nepal floods missing family
But he was messaging me as much as he could. The last time I spoke to him was Wednesday morning around 8:45 AM, which is around 20 minutes before the floods hit his region. So we’re not sure that that 20-minute period is such a vital period because we don’t know what happened during that time. We don’t know whether they were in the hotel, whether they left or not. Nepal floods missing family
We know that the hotel that they were staying at has been completely washed away, but we’re just clinging onto the hope that they heard the flood coming and they were able to run up into the mountains. But as of yet, that area hasn’t been searched properly, or we don’t know what searches have been conducted, so we’re very much in the dark about all of this.
Pawan Luthra: Are you getting regular information from the government on how things are going and how in-depth the search has been?
Sarada Viswanathan: Uh, no, not really. It just feels like every time I call them, they don’t really have an update for me. And it, it’s fair enough because I don’t think that they have any updates.
I don’t think that they’re hiding anything. But I think that, like I said, because the communication is down over there, it’s very difficult for them to access that region. But I think we all just wish we knew exactly what was going on and we had more clarity on how many manned rescues have been going, how many helicopters have been going, which areas have been searched, how many areas have been searched, what’s the future process gonna be like.
I think that information would be very vital because we’re just people that care so much about our family and we just wanna bring them home.
Pawan Luthra: Of 44 Australians, I think two have now been found – with the recent, news flash just minutes ago about yet another Australian being found.
Sarada Viswanathan: Yeah. So that definitely brings us a lot of hope. We’re hoping that, you know, our people will also be found. We’re obviously very happy that these two Australians have been found, but two out of 41, I mean, it’s not, it’s not great odds at all. It’s not a great percentage that’s reached, yeah, but we’re hoping that the research and rescue parties continue and we bring all of them back.
Pawan Luthra: I believe you have a petition going, calling out for more help. Can you share that with us, please?
Sarada Viswanathan: Yeah. So we have the petition calling out for the Australian government to send military troops and physical aids to try and help with the on-foot search parties. So we have that out at the moment. It has more than 10,000 signatures and has been reposted by change.org Australia.
Pawan Luthra: Can we share it on our website, on Indian Link, and our social media?
Sarada Viswanathan: Yes, definitely. We want it to reach as far as it can possibly go in hopes for some change and some action to be taken.
Pawan Luthra: And finally, Sarada, after six days of uncertainty, what are you holding on to now?
Sarada Viswanathan: We’re holding on to the hope of this new positive lead that maybe they were able to run up to the mountains. We’re holding on to the hope that the Australian government will send more aid over there and that our people will be found. I think that’s, that’s all we really have is just the hope, and we’re really clinging on.
Pawan Luthra: And prayers. Nepal floods missing family
Sarada Viswanathan: Yeah, definitely. We pray every day, all day every day. We hope all day every day. Those are our forms of strength at the moment.
Pawan Luthra: And we join you in that. Sarada, look, thank you very much for spending time with us and sharing your thoughts and wishing everybody all the very best.
Sarada Viswanathan: Thank you so much. Thanks for having me.
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