The Pune Rural police have rescued six trekkers from Thane who lost their way in Bhimashankar forest under Pune district amid heavy rains and dense fog Sunday evening.
Officials from Ghodegaon police station in Pune Rural said the owner of an eatery in Bhimashankar forest had informed them that some trekkers had lost their way in the forest. Thereafter, a team from Ghodegaon police station led by inspector Jeevan Mane was dispatched to the area. Considering the risks involved, senior officials including superintendent of police Abhinav Deshmukh and deputy superintendent Sudarshan Patil were continuously monitoring the situation, officials added.
Mane said, “We got to know that the six trekkers, who are from Ulhasnagar in Thane, had started their journey from Murbad. They began their trek via Bailghat and entered the Bhimashankar forest. They lost their way in the forest around 5pm. Our entire force was deployed in and around the Bhimashankar temple for crowd control duties because of Ashadhi Ekadashi and Sunday.
“But considering the situation the trekkers were in, our small team searched with the help of locals who have a good understanding of the forest and the terrain. We now know that after realising that they had lost their way, the trekkers called a local eatery for help and its owner had, in turn, informed us.”
Officials said that the trekkers were stuck in a difficult terrain of high gradient slope and dangerous cliffs.
Mane added, “Fortunately, the trekkers were able to get cell phone signal and inform us about their location, a while after we launched the search. We carried with us basic medical aid kits and dry food items. Based on the location, we tracked them down around 10pm and brought them to safety.”
It can be recalled that in the third week of May, a 24-year-old mechanical engineer from Delhi, Farhan Serajuddin, who had come for a trek to Nagphani near Lonavala, had lost his way in the forest. After a multi-agency search operation that lasted four days, Serajuddin’s body was located in a valley within the forest.