Youth Trapped in the Hill Cleft for 48 hours: Part 1
This is a real life incident which was happened on February 2022 and grabbed the whole Kerala state’s attention 😨. Isn’t it shocking, right? Without further ado, let’s get into it.
On 7th February 2022, R Babu, a 23 year old youth along with his friends went for trekking the Kurumbachi Hills near Malampuzha in Kerala’s Palakkad district. Though this area is prohibited because of wild animals and the rocky hill is around 6000 feet. When they reached around 1000 feet, his friends were exhausted and decided to go down. But Babu didn’t want to go down even though his friends told him not to go and he alone trekked up to nearly 3000 feet. When he started trekking downhill with exhaustion, he slipped and fell down the cleft which is 400 m down, on the face of the hill.
He suffered injuries to his leg during his fall. He had sent selfies and photographs of the spot where he was stuck to his family, friends and the police. His family members and friends have gathered at the foot of the hills with prayers to get him back.
A unit of the Kerala Fire and Rescue and the Malampuzha police reached the spot by midnight. They were unable to initiate rescue activities due to visibility issues. However, the group stayed nearby to ensure Babu’s safety. The team lit flambeaus to keep wild animals away during the night.
On February 8th, a Coast Guard helicopter arrived at the spot in an attempt to airlift Babu as per the request of Palakkad district collector Mrunmayi Joshi. But the helicopter was reportedly unable to go close to the steep slope where Babu was trapped or make a landing atop the hill. It returned after observing the situation. According to a release issued by the Coast Guard, the helicopter pilot had decided to hover the aircraft near the ridge where the survivor was stranded, but due to “topography of the terrain and various met conditions the helicopter was experiencing heavy downdraft” and therefore, the mission was aborted.
Efforts to provide drinking water using a drone had failed,” said Malampuzha panchayat president Radhika Madhavan, who is camping in the area. Weather is another challenge. While heat is unbearable during daytime, mercury drops drastically in the evening.
Rescue team members said that when they shouted, the youth responded and asked for drinking water. District Collector Mrunmai Joshi, district police chief R Viswanath and Additional District Magistrate K Manikantan are overseeing the rescue mission.
Joshi said the height of the hills could be about 1,000 metres. “My son wants food and water. I could see him and he gestured to me. I told him not to shout because he would get tired,” said Babu’s mother Rashidha.
In the next part is about how Babu got rescued. Let me know what’s your comment on this story. So stay tuned...