– A Sri Lankan-origin Australian couple and their two young sons are among dozens of Australians still missing after catastrophic floods devastated areas along the Nepal-Tibet border, according to Australian media reports.
Chandrasekaran Muralitharan, 47, his wife, Shylaja Muralitharan, 42, and their sons Ashwin, 14, and Aarush, 11, were travelling with a Himalayan Glacier Adventures group when contact with them was lost.

The family lives in northwestern Sydney. Chandrasekaran is originally from Kopay in Jaffna, while he and his wife are first-generation Sri Lankan migrants to Australia, according to reports from Sri Lankan and Australian media. Their two sons were born into the Australian Tamil diaspora.The family was on a pilgrimage to the Mount Kailash region when the floods struck on August 26.
Relatives said their last contact with the family came on the morning of the disaster. They were preparing to have breakfast before travelling toward the border for immigration formalities, ABC News reported.

Their family was unable to reach them after that call as floods and landslides destroyed roads, electricity supplies and communications across large parts of the affected region.The Muralitharans were travelling with a tour group that included 15 Australians. Members of the group were believed to have been near Rasuwagadhi, close to the Nepal-China border, when the disaster struck.
Australian authorities said Monday that 43 Australians remained unaccounted for following the floods. Many were pilgrims travelling through Nepal toward Tibet to visit Mount Kailash.

The wider disaster has become one of the deadliest Himalayan floods in recent years.For relatives of the Muralitharan family, however, attention remains focused on finding the four missing family members.Shylaja’s sister told Australian media that relatives were continuing to seek information from authorities and the tour operator while hoping the family had managed to reach safety.Reports said the pilgrimage had been particularly important to Shylaja and that the family had spent considerable time preparing for the journey.The family’s Sri Lankan roots have also drawn attention from members of the Sri Lankan community at home and in Australia as the search continues.

Australian emergency personnel have been deployed to Nepal to assist consular and response operations, while officials are working with local authorities to account for missing citizens.As rescue teams continue searching the devastated border region, the Muralitharan family remains among those whose whereabouts have not been confirmed.