Chitwan: Seventeen days have passed since the Simaltal tragedy, and 38 passengers are still missing. On July 12, two buses were swept into the Trishuli River by a landslide along the Narayangadh-Muglin road section in Bharatpur Metropolis-29.

Despite continuous search efforts by a 12-member underwater rescue team from India's National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), there has been no trace of the missing buses or passengers. The NDRF team arrived on July 20 at the request of the Nepal government but returned to India after a week of unsuccessful searching.

Chief District Officer in Chitwan, Indra Dev Yadav, stated that the NDRF team estimated that the missing buses might be located somewhere between Simaltal and Gaighat, a stretch of about 3.5 kilometers. However, this remains uncertain. The Nepali team continues the search based on this approximation, although deep river conditions and a strong current have made the exploration challenging.

Since the disaster, 24 corpses have been recovered from various locations, but only 18 have been identified so far. The buses involved in the tragedy were one traveling from Birgunj to Kathmandu and another heading from Kathmandu to Gaur. The search for the remaining passengers and the missing buses continues.