Lost but not afraid: Kerala trekker recounts four days alone in Kodagu hills
Thiruvananthapuram/ Bengaluru (PTI): A 36-year-old woman from Kerala, who was found on Sunday after going missing for four days in the Tadiandamol hills of Karnataka’s Kodagu district, said she “lost her way somehow” but never felt afraid during the ordeal.
Appearing calm and composed, G S Sharanya, a native of Nadapuram in Kozhikode district of Kerala, walked out to the rescuers with a smile, recounting how she survived alone in the dense forest with limited resources and fading hope of contact.
She was part of a 10-member group that had set out for trekking on Thursday.
She was reported to have reached the Thadiyandamol trekking base around 7 am that day. Later, authorities were alerted after she failed to return, prompting a search operation soon after.
Addressing reporters after being rescued, she said, “I had lost my way. I could not see anyone when I climbed down. I came to a left-side path but could not find anyone."
With just a 500 ml bottle of water and no mobile connectivity, she said she tried contacting a colleague, before her phone ran out of charge.
“I walked till around 6.45 pm on the first day after losing the path. After that, I stayed in an open space near a stream as I could not proceed further because of the dense forest,” she said.
In the days that followed, she kept moving in the hope of finding help.
“In the days that followed, I kept walking expecting to meet someone,” she added.
Despite being alone in a forest area believed to be frequented by elephants and amid intermittent heavy rain, the woman said fear never overtook her.
“I did not feel scared. I don’t know why,” she said with a confident smile.
She was eventually spotted by a group of locals in a remote patch of the forest “where nobody usually goes”, according to members of the rescue team.
Karnataka Forest Minister Eshwar Khandre confirmed that the woman had been found and was in good health.
A massive round-the-clock search operation involving nine teams—including forest officials, Anti-Naxal Squad members, and local tribal communities—had been launched soon after she was reported missing.
Sharanya, who was staying at a private homestay in Kakkabe village, had set out on April 2 for a trek to the Tadiandamol peak along with a guide and a group of trekkers but went missing later that day.
Officials said she had last contacted the homestay on Thursday, informing them that she had lost her way.
Search efforts were intensified on the directions of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, with additional personnel and advanced equipment, including thermal drone cameras, deployed to locate her.
State Forest Minister Khandre described her as “brave and adventurous”, noting that the lack of mobile connectivity in the forest had made it difficult to trace her location.
Authorities said she would be safely escorted back home to Kerala.
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BJP's Pravesh Wahi elected MCD mayor
New Delhi (PTI): BJP councillor from Rohini East, Pravesh Wahi, was elected mayor of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) on Wednesday.
Wahi secured 156 votes, with 14 councillors of the Indraprastha Vikas Party backing him. Congress candidate Hazi Zaraf received nine votes.
BJP councillor from Anand Vihar, Monika Pant, was elected deputy mayor with 156 votes.
Jai Bhagwan Yadav from Begumpur and Manish Chadha from Paharganj were elected to the standing committee from the BJP, while AAP councillor Jalaj Chaudhary from Shalimar Bagh was also elected to the MCD panel.
On being elected mayor, Wahi thanked Chief Minister Rekha Gupta and the BJP leadership, saying, "We will clean Delhi in the coming months. We will work for the development of Delhi."
The electoral college for this year's mayoral election comprised 273 votes, including 249 councillors, 14 MLAs nominated by the Delhi Assembly, seven Lok Sabha MPs and three Rajya Sabha members from Delhi. A candidate required 137 votes to win.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) abstained from the mayoral polls. Earlier, the party's Delhi unit president Saurabh Bharadwaj said in a statement that the move would allow the BJP to take charge of the civic body and help AAP "expose" the ruling party on governance.
"Despite having power at all levels, the BJP has failed to bring about any change in Delhi. The BJP does not know how to perform. Only AAP knows how to work," Bharadwaj said.
Earlier, AAP controlled the mayoral post, with Mahesh Kumar Khinchi winning the election in November 2024 by just three votes.
The three civic bodies -- East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC), North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) and South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) -- were reunified into a single entity on May 22, 2022, as the Municipal Corporation of Delhi.
