Bodies of eight Kerala tourists flown back home from Nepal

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The bodies of eight Indian tourists including four children, who died in Nepal, have been sent home in Kerala. According to the Embassy of India, all bodies have been flown from Kathmandu to New Delhi.

The mortal remains of Praveen Krishnan Nair, his wife Saranya Sasi and their three children have been brought to Thiruvananthapuram, while mortal remains of Ranjith Kumar Adatholath Punathil, his wife Indu Lakshmi Peethambaran Ragalatha and their son were taken to Calicut.

The funeral of the Thiruvananthapuram residents will be held at 10 am on Friday and the funeral of Kozhikode natives will be held later at 5 pm.

They were part of 15 Indian nationals from Kerala who had checked into a resort in Daman, a popular tourist place in Nepal on Monday night.

Though they had booked four rooms eight of them stayed in one room and turned on a gas heater to keep themselves warm. All eight people were found unconscious on Tuesday morning.

They were airlifted to Kathmandu for treatment where doctors declared them dead. The postmortem of all eight bodies was conducted at Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital in Kathmandu yesterday.

Nepal's Minister for Foreign Affairs Pradeep Kumar Gyawali has expressed condolences on the demise of Indian tourists. In a tweet, Mr. Gyawali said, he is deeply shocked to learn about the death of eight Indian nationals. He offered heartfelt condolences to the government and people of India and to the bereaved families.

Meanwhile, the Department of Tourism has formed a five-member committee to investigate whether there was any lapse in the safety of tourists by resort and whether resort was following standards set by the government. The department has asked the committee to submit its report within 15 days.