Dhaval Shah and his wife Megha travelled from their home in Port Moody to Tibet for a long-awaited adventure. “Himalayan Glacier is the name of the company, so that’s what they had booked,” said Dhaval’s brother Keval Shah. He last spoke to his brother on Sunday, who sent photos of the happy couple enjoying their trip. On Wednesday morning, Keval became concerned when he began seeing images of a massive flood and mudslide that struck the Timure region of Nepal where the couple was travelling with a large tour group. “I immediately messaged him, ‘I hope the flood has not affected you.’ The message did not go. So I called him, called Megha, but it was not going through. And then suddenly, out of the blue, the Himalayan Glacier guys added us onto a group saying this is what has happened,” said Keval. The hotel where the Shahs’ tour group was last seen was just 1.5 kilometres from a border checkpoint between Nepal and Tibet that was destroyed by a wall of mud and ice. No one from that group has been heard from since. “The choppers have not been able to land to the ground zero where these guys were staying. So, unless they reach there or Dhaval and Megha and the gang have climbed up a mountain, we don’t know,” said Keval. The Shahs’ friends Sumit and Shubakshi Rawla from Coquitlam were also part of the tour group, which had plans to travel to the immigration checkpoint the morning of the mudslide. Their daughters spoke to their parents just hours before disaster struck. “I just hope the Canadian government can help us find our parents,” said their daughter Parnika Rawla. “I don’t know what I’m going to do without my mom and dad.” “We have been in contact with Canadian officials in Nepal, but obviously we have not gotten any concrete information,” said their daughter Kenisha Rawla. “So ideally we hope this urges the Canadian government to maybe get more reliable information or send some rescue teams, because we know alongside our parents there are many Canadians who are missing in Nepal.” While Keval Shah also hopes the Canadian government can provide some assistance in locating his brother and sister-in-law, he knows families of the missing all over the world are in the same boat. “I know every country would be telling the Nepal government to find our people, find our people, which is not the right thing to do. Every human life is important,” Keval said. All he can do now is hold onto hope. “I know Dhawal, he’s an athlete, he can survive without food and water for a month,” Keval said. “I just pray that a miracle happens and we get to see him. That’s all I can ask for.”
