The State Minister for School Education, Rajmohan, has said that out of the 319 pilgrims from Tamil Nadu who had gone to Nepal, 219 of them will return this week.
Interacting with the media in Chennai, he said that Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay had directed three ministers and officials from Tamil Nadu to camp in Delhi to handle the emergency situation arising out of the Nepal tragedy.
He said that they had gathered information on those who were stranded through the control centre set up at the Tamil Nadu House in New Delhi.
The minister said that information on the condition of another hundred pilgrims is not known. Mr Rajmohan said that despite the difficult situation in the terrain, rescue efforts were in full swing.
He said that out of the 57 pilgrims who were registered with a tour operator from Kumbakonam, 21 of them had returned safely.
Another group of 150 pilgrims are to arrive from China. He said that there was no information about 49 of the pilgrims who were registered with the Mahadevi agency. The Minister said that efforts were on to identify the unidentified mortal remains of the pilgrims.