Kathmandu: At least seven Indian pilgrims were killed in a microbus accident in Nepal’s Gorkha district Saturday evening while returning after offering prayers at the Manakamana Temple, the police said.
Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Raj Kumar Shrestha of the District Police Office in Gorkha told IANS that the pilgrims died after the microbus plunged off the road into a gorge in the Kantar area of Sahid Lakhan Rural Municipality.
“Seven pilgrims have been injured and have been sent to Chitwan Medical College in Bharatpur, Chitwan district, for treatment,” Shrestha said. Police added that the rescue operation was still underway.
According to the local administration, the microbus was carrying more than a dozen passengers.
“The microbus was heading towards the Anbukhaireni area of Tanahun district, west of the Manakamana Temple, but it is not immediately clear where the passengers were heading after concluding their visit to the temple,” Tulasi Bahadur Shrestha, Chief District Officer of Gorkha, told IANS.
Police said the cause of the accident remains unknown, but the electric microbus carrying the Indian pilgrims met with the accident on a steep stretch of the road.
In August 2024, a bus carrying Indian pilgrims had met with an accident in the Anbukhaireni area, killing at least 27 people.
Nepal has been witnessing a rise in road accidents in recent years, along with an increase in the number of vehicles plying on the roads.
A decade ago, 4,999 road accidents were reported by the Nepal Traffic Police. In the fiscal year 2024–25, the country recorded 7,669 road accidents and 190 deaths, official data showed.
Of the total accidents, 278 were classified as serious. Apart from the human toll, road safety also has a major economic impact.
A study by the World Bank in Nepal found that the economic cost of road traffic injuries has tripled since 2007 and now amounts to 1.5 per cent of the country’s gross national product.
Road crashes also have a disproportionate impact on the poor. More than 70 per cent of all road fatality victims in Nepal are vulnerable road users such as pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists, the World Bank said.
