One dead in five-person Badimalika pilgrimage group; companion rescued

One member of a five-person pilgrimage group has been found dead after heavy snow blocked the return from Badimalika in Nepal. Three companions returned safely; another was rescued by helicopter. For 20-year-old Manish Bohara, the search ended near Triveni Patan, where his body was found by the later November 1, 2026, reports. ^{1 8}

Bohara’s body was flown to Martadi, the headquarters of Bajura district, on Monday, November 2, for a post-mortem examination, The Himalayan Times reported. That recovery establishes his whereabouts and ends the search. It does not yet explain how or when he died. No findings from the examination have been established in the available reporting. ⁷

His travelling companion, 21-year-old Sagar Karki, survived. A helicopter evacuated him from Triveni Patan to Martadi on Saturday, October 31, after adverse weather prevented him from descending. District administration officials described his condition after the flight as normal; the report supplied no more detailed medical assessment. ¹

The two men were from Kanchanpur: Bohara from Daiji in Bedkot Municipality, and Karki from Ward 2 of Krishnapur Municipality. They had travelled from Martadi toward Badimalika Bhagwati Temple with three other people, described as being from eastern Nepal. Those three returned safely. The reports do not establish exactly when or where the group became separated. ^{1 2 8}

The clearest account of the alarm begins with a call from Karki on Friday, October 30. Bohara had disappeared while returning from the temple after snowfall began. Karki was still able to reach police and tell them that his friend was missing and that he himself was at Triveni Patan. Police Inspector Naresh Bahadur Shahi, information officer at the District Police Office, recounted the conversation in Khabarhub’s October 31 report. ²

By that October 31 account, Karki had been out of contact since the previous night, and both men’s phones appeared to be switched off. Police considered that snow might have prevented Karki from descending. At that stage, this was an assessment—not confirmation that the two men were together or stranded at the same spot. ²

Karki’s rescue subsequently established where he had sheltered. According to the District Administration Office account carried by The Himalayan Times on November 1, he had been staying at a pilgrims’ shelter at Triveni Patan since Friday because the weather made travel impossible. The shelter gave rescuers a location from which to evacuate him; finding Karki alive did not resolve Bohara’s disappearance. ¹

The weather complicated both movement and the response. Police described continuous rainfall in Bajura from Friday, with heavy snow in Badimalika and other high-altitude areas. Return routes were obstructed, and later reporting also described freezing conditions. These were the conditions surrounding the disappearance and search, not a medical explanation for Bohara’s death. ^{2 8}

The response developed from preparations into an active search. Khabarhub’s October 31 police account said personnel were being readied in Martadi; separate reporting placed search activity under way by that day. The Himalayan Times’ November 1 account confirmed a helicopter carrying personnel from the Nepal Army’s Martadi-based Ishwaribaks Battalion had been mobilised to search the snow-affected area. Annapurna Express also reported a helicopter deployment of security personnel on Sunday morning, November 1. That later deployment does not establish when the first search began. ^{2 15 1 12}

The changing headlines describe successive stages of the emergency, not competing outcomes. Khabarhub reported two people missing on October 31. The Himalayan Times’ early November 1 report established Karki’s rescue while the search for Bohara continued. Later November 1 reports in The Himalayan Times, The Kathmandu Post and Annapurna Express established that Bohara had been found dead near Triveni Patan, superseding the earlier missing-person accounts. ^{2 1 4 8 12}

Two background details remain inconsistent. Khabarhub’s October 31 article says the group left Martadi on October 26; The Himalayan Times’ November 1 rescue account gives October 25. Neither departure date has been definitively settled. The same reports place the temple at 4,020 metres and about 4,200 metres respectively, without an authoritative measurement to reconcile them. Neither figure establishes the elevation of the place where Bohara’s body was found. ^{2 1}

Those discrepancies should remain visible, but they do not alter the confirmed outcomes for the five travellers. The more consequential gap is the interval between Bohara’s disappearance and the discovery of his body. Snow and freezing conditions explain the setting of the emergency; they are not enough to diagnose hypothermia or establish another specific cause of death.