Techie on trek to Bannerghatta goes missing

An IT professional from the city, who was trekking in the Bannerghatta Biological Park along with two friends on Saturday afternoon, has gone missing in the dense forest.

Satwik Shastry was not traceable till Sunday night, while Anupam and Ashish, his childhood friends, were able to find their way to a nearby village.

The three reached the Ragihalli hillock, a viewpoint from where the entire forest is visible. They climbed down from the hillock into the dense forest and reached Kasubina Kunte, a village. The villagers told Deccan Herald that they had spotted the three around 6:30 in the evening. According to the village residents, the trio entered the forest and soon disappeared. Two of the trekkers returned to the village late in the night looking bruised.
“On questioning, they said that one of them had gone missing in the forest. We immediately informed the police and then joined the search party,” said Mallesh, a resident of Kasubina Kunte.

Anupam told Deccan Herald that they had gone into the forest in the afternoon, parking their two-wheelers on the Ragihalli hillock and reached the village located at the other end of the forest.

“We were returning as it was becoming dark. Some 15 minutes away from the village, Satwik separated from the group to attend a nature call. He asked us to go on, saying he would join us. A few minutes later, when he did not catch us up with us, we began searching for him for nearly an hour. It was dark and raining heavily and we, too, lost our way. Somehow, we both made it to the village again and informed the residents,” he said.

Forest officials and local police have formed three special teams that are combing the entire forest of about three square kilometres from Sunday morning. About 20 local villagers and cowherds who know the forest well have also joined the teams that were searching for the missing technie, but till late night had no success.

Forest officials and the villagers say the forest is an elephant zone and also has wild dogs and leopards. They fear a wild animal attack as a possible explaination for the techie going missing and not being found even after 24 hours.