Annapurna Tragedy: 'Indian Father, Daughter Could Have Been Killed In Deadly Avalanche'
The duo went to meditate in the Annapurna trekking circuit in Manang which is 200km from Nepal's Kathmandu when Cyclone Montha hit south Asia.
Published : November 10, 2025 at 9:49 PM IST
|Updated : November 11, 2025 at 8:58 AM IST
Kathmandu: The Indian father and his daughter who were found dead in Nepal Himalayas could have been hit by a deadly avalanche on the northern side of Mount Annapurna III (7,555m), according to officials involved in the high-altitude search and rescue operation.
The avalanche, they said, could have occurred around the time they ended their week-long meditation retreat in a remote mountain cave, slightly above a Buddhist monastery. The Milarepa monastery mostly remains empty in the Himalayan district of Manang, some 200km northwest of the Nepali capital, Kathmandu.
Rescuers of Armed Police Force (APF) Nepal located bodies of Jignesh Patel, 52, and his daughter Priyanshi, 17, on Sunday afternoon--that is some two weeks after they went missing in Milarepa monastery area in Manang. Located along the world-famous Annapurna trekking circuit, the region is well known for its pristine Himalayan environment in the shadows of such towering peaks--Annapurna I, II, III--among others.
On Sunday, later afternoon "we were surprised to find their bodies, heads facing down, buried in deep snow on the slope," DSP Hira Bahadur G.C., the search and rescue team leader of the APF Nepal's Mountain Rescue and Training Centre, Manang, told ETV Bharat.
"At first they appeared like bag-packs, but when we dug deep we were shocked that they were bodies of the missing father and daughter."
According to G.C., the two left Gyaljen Lodge on October 20 and were headed for a cave on the Himalayan slope behind the monastery. The lodge owner, Karma Gurung, said they had spent three days at the lodge for acclimatisation. Manang sits at an elevation of 3,600m, requiring high-altitude acclimatisation for people from lower elevations.
According to Karma Gurung, the teacher from Surat, Gujarat, Patel, was a frequent visitor to the area, having last visited Manang just a few months earlier in April-May too. "Last time he had come alone for mediation," she said. "The year before, he had come with his daughter."
She added: "They had gone to a cave above the monastery for meditation with tents, sleeping bags, food and other stuff. But I'm very shocked and very saddened to know about their demise, especially because the young daughter was so lovely and was a bit sickly when she left."
The APF Nepal rescuers, who searched the area with drones and other equipment for days, located their bodies only on Sunday around 2 PM – just below one of the caves, about 120m southwest of the Milarepa monastery, according to DSP G.C.
Nepal weather had sharply deteriorated in the aftermath of Cyclone Montha which hit South Asia in the last week of October. It started affecting the Himalayan weather from October 27, when the Annapurna region saw heavy snowfall, prompting the APF Nepal rescuers to mount a search and rescue operation for hordes of trekkers in the area.
"We suspect it could be precisely around that time, possibly on October 27, the father and daughter possibly suffered from heavy snowfall and started descending,” DSP G.C. said. "Unfortunately, it appears that as soon as they moved, an avalanche came crashing down over them, or near them."
All mountaineers and trekkers heading up along the Annapurna Circuit, which goes around the Annapurnas, are mandatorily required to hire guides and porters if needed. But in the case of the Patels, no guide was hired, according to Karma Gurung, the lodge owner. And a porter who accompanied the two to the cave had returned soon after he had supplied their logistics to the cave, she said.
The Chief District Officer of Manang, Nabaraj Poudyal, expressed his regrets that the Patels had not informed the security personnel about their plans to spend a week in a meditation cave. He also recalled that days before Cyclone Mantha arrived over Nepal, the government had issued weather alerts, urging everyone to exercise caution and avoid long distance travels as well as high-altitude trekking expeditions.
He told ETV Bharat, "If they had followed our rules, such as mandatorily hiring a guide, or informed us about their plan, we could have done something much earlier. That way, possibly the tragedy could have been averted."
Read More
