Trekkers from Hyderabad go missing in Baba Budangiri in Chikkamagalur Karnataka

Chikkamagaluru: Two trekkers - Vivek Gupta, a lab technician and Shashidhar, a software engineer went missing in Baba Budangiri Hills. The joint search operation by police, forest officials and members of an Adventure Club for the two trekkers has been called off after nearly 36 hours due to the darkness and is set to resume on Tuesday morning.

Superintendent of Police Santosh Babu informed that additional personal will be deployed for the search operations along with the forest officers who are accustomed to jungle conditions. The two trekkers arrived in Chikkamagaluru with an 11-member trekking team from Hyderabad. The group toured the Mullayyanagiri peak Chikkamagaluru and descended to trek through Baba Budangiri Hills but the victims went missing in the Galikere area near Kemmanagundi.

The other trekkers after conducting a search for them went to the nearest police check post near Baba Bundangiri Hills. The officials immediately conducted a search party but were unable to locate them.

A supervising official said that due to the thick mist followed by heavy rains, the search operation had been hindered. Mr Santosh Babu said that with no mobile connectivity in the Hill range, it is difficult to establishing contact and also they had entered the Hill range on their own without any permission from the forest department. The chances of the two trekkers survival is said to be bleak as the ecologists working closely at the reserve inform that the current weather condition is difficult and the terrain is frequented by tigers and other wild animals.

However, the police team is certain of tracing the trekkers alive as the number of houses and estates present in the area is a possibility of the trekkers taking shelter. But the Chikkamagaluru locals assisting the rescue operations state that as the area is receiving heavy rainfall and the cliffs are ranging over thousand metres around the area, the chances of survival are poor.