Hyderabad trekkers safe, trace near Hebbe Falls

Two youngsters who went missing on Sunday night in the Bababudangiri hills in the Chikamagaluru district in Karnataka while on a trek in the Galikere area were found alive on Tuesday night.

The trekkers were found at around 7.30 pm near the Hebbe Falls 15 km away from the place they went missing. A massive search was conducted by police teams along with forest officials and local adventure club members. The two trekkers from Hyderabad - Vivek Gupta, a lab technician and Shashidhar, software engineer were part of a 10 member trekking group but went missing in Baba Budangiri Hills on Sunday.

Santosh Babu, the Superintendent of Police (SP) of the Chikamagaluru district said that they were found in a messy and tired state due to the heavy rainy conditions and lack of food in the two days they spent in the forest.

The SP informed that they will be brought to Chikamagaluru after which medical treatment will be provided. 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. They informed the police that the duo had handed over their mobile phones to other members in the team and set out on finding a route for the trek but got lost and did not return.

The officials immediately conducted a search party but were unable to locate them due to the thick mist followed by heavy rains causing the search operation to halt. Mr Santosh Babu said that the search operations were faced with many problems and with no mobile connectivity in the Hill range, it was difficult to establish contact.