Rescue ಆಫ 2 trekkers @ Ombattu Gudda

28th December Morning 11:30 I got a call from Neeraj Malve of BMC, he told me two persons who went to Ombattu Gudda lost their way and perched on a small hillock. He also given their contact no and told there name as Pradeep & Varun.

Immediately I called on that number first Varun spoke to me and I asked about their surrounding nature he told one sharp peak about 1200mts to their NE , they had taken right turn from Ombattu Gudda route and the they are on a small hill about 500mts. I told I ll call u back in 5mins
As per my knowledge I thought 1200mts Mountain would be Jenukallu, Yetthinabuja or Nayibetta (Dog Mountain). Yetthinabuja or shishila mountain comes to left side of Ombattu Gudda. Immediately I spoke to Jobi who works for our resort and asked him to call Ganesh or other local person who is having good knowledge of the surrounding forest. 10 Mins he came with ganesh. Mean while I called Vijay one of our partner @ Rottikallu resort and informed the same. Vijay told first we will go to Rottikallu View point where one can get a panoramic view of Western Ghats.
Vijay and Thilak Hired a 4 X 4 Jeep coz to reach Rottikallu view point either we need to trek 8 Kms or go by jeep with 4wheel drive. By arranging all these things one and half hour was over we packed some curd rice, biscuits, glucose, water bottles, and a knife. I, Vijay, Thilak, and Ganesh along with driver started from Rottikallu resort to View point @ 01:30PM.

When we reached the destination it was around 02:45PM and from the jeep track we trek for half KM. and there was very low network and we roamed here and there got some network and tried calling them after 10 mins of struggle we were able to reach them over the phone and once again asked for location we were in dilemma. I suddenly noticed sunlight was falling only on some mountains down the Jenukallu Mountain I asked Pradeep how is the weather over there he told it’s completely sunlight hear. We told him to do some fire 2 mins after smoke came up from one small hill. That was surrounded by kabbinale forest.

First we planned to start trek immediately but recently we heard from local people that there are bears and elephants are there and if dint make to their place before dusk then it will be a problem for us. We came back to resort and prepared some more food water and first aid kit four torch with a dozen batteries. We started from resort @ 5:30 and reached Rottikallu view point @ 06:45 PM. It was pitch dark added with drizzling our two brave guys started trekking and told we will reach that place by 11 PM. We came back and to resort and started countdown timing by 11 I called our rescue guys both the phones were not reachable.

Now the frustration started still 5 in the morning we were calling our rescue guys no answer from them. We were thinking possibility of elephant attack otherwise we were sure they would have reached by time. Morning 6 we called Pradeep and given assurance that by eight somebody will be there to bring you back.

We started plan B by if our rescue team dint reach by 8:00 AM we will start to that place by different route. I was trying our rescue team contact no form 6 to 8 continues sly exactly at o8:02 mobile got connected and our rescue team told we reached them successfully.
I asked them the reason why you were so late. Our thinking was correct around 11 Pm five to six elephants chased them and they ran about 1 Kms and missed their route. They rested under a tree still morning and reached the place by exact 08:00AM

They called us and told to come to Laxmi Saraswathi estate I, Vijay Thilak went to LS Estate by jeep. Pradeep and Varun were full exhausted we provide them curd rice and brought them to our resort.