By Christine Chen, Cordelia Hsu and Byron Kaye
SYDNEY, Sept 3 (Reuters) – An Australian medical student whose partner went missing in the Nepal floods believes tech companies must do more to help find him and others caught up in the disaster by sharing location data that could narrow search areas for rescue teams.
Sarada Viswanathan, 23, has spent the past eight days trying to piece together the last movements of her boyfriend Rishab Iyer and his family, after they vanished near the border between Nepal and China’s Tibet when a glacier collapse unleashed a torrent of destruction through the region.
The disaster on August 26 has killed more than 1,200 people, and over 4,200 remain missing, including hundreds of foreign nationals and 38 Australians.
Working from her home in northwestern Sydney, Viswanathan said obtaining information out of Nepal has been difficult, with Apple and Singtel-owned telecom firm Optus denying her requests for location data that could shed light on the whereabouts of the Iyers.
“We’re all just scrambling to try and put the pieces together ourselves,” Viswanathan said.
“Their phones are most likely dead. They have no way of contacting us. We’re really just begging for help.”
Iyer, a 23-year-old in his final year of medical school, had been on a pilgrimage to the holy site of Mount Kailash with his parents and younger brother.
Viswanathan said she last heard from Iyer on the morning of August 26. His family’s last known location on Apple’s Find My service and the Life360 tracking app placed them near their hotel close to the Nepal-Tibet border, about 30 minutes before the floods struck.
Relatives of another member of the Iyers’ tour group, who had a local phone number, have since obtained information through Nepali authorities showing a phone signal later that day farther north, Viswanathan said.
Similar data was unavailable for those using Australian numbers, though, with Optus and Apple citing privacy and security concerns in declining requests for information.
“We want every single signal we can possibly get after the flood hit. We know where they were before, but we have no idea within that 30-minute period of before the flood hit to now,” Viswanathan said.
“There should be a much bigger effort to try and help us, because it’s not just some random situation where I’m just trying to see where my partner is. I’m trying to save his life.”
PETITION FOR HELP TO AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT
Optus said in a statement it was unable to comment on matters relating to individual customers, and Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Life360 said it was inappropriate to comment on the ongoing situation. The U.S. company said people in a user’s “circle” can access the latest location, which relies on phone tower signals. People outside the circle — whom the user has not authorised to track their location — must make a request through local authorities, it said.
Viswanathan has also launched a petition urging the Australian government — which has deployed drone specialists, consular officers, police and defence personnel to Nepal — to send more people to assist with the search.
Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade referred to a press conference held by Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong on Thursday.
Wong said the country would donate an additional A$3 million ($2.15 million) in humanitarian relief, taking total funding support to A$11 million. Australia would also share telecommunications data with Nepali authorities.
Viswanathan warned any delays could be costly in a situation where the window for survival is getting slimmer.
“Some companies are releasing it now, but it feels like a bit of a too-little, too-late situation, and we don’t want it to get to that point where it is actually too late.”
Smriti Bhandari, a police officer coordinating information about foreigners needing rescue, said crews had searched the area where the Iyers’ tour group disappeared.
“So far we have no Australian tourist rescued. We have no data of any Australian who has been rescued so far,” she said.
“If there is any report of any tourists trapped there, rescue officials will go there again.”
Viswanathan said she would keep searching for Iyer and his family until she got answers.
“Our efforts have not dimmed at all. I think a lot of people think that they would have by now because we would have lost some kind of hope. But I think if anything, we’re still working harder than ever.”
($1 = 1.3949 Australian dollars)
(Reporting by Christine Chen, Cordelia Hsu and Byron Kaye in Sydney; Additional reporting by Gopal Sharma; Editing by Tom Hogue and Jacqueline Wong)
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