KARWAR: Six tourists, who were stranded at Shirale waterfalls near Yellapur spent more than 24 hours in the forest area, without food, sleep, shelter and they also lost their phone connectivity due to the rains. Firefighters rescued these stranded tourists by Tuesday evening, and they reached their home in Hubballi by midnight.
According to a fire brigade personnel Naveen, Anand, Basu, Arati, Prasad and Ramakrishna went to Shirale falls on Monday evening. They had planned to visit Vibhooti waterfalls near Yana, but were unable to reach the spot as a tree fell on the way to the falls. While returning they found Shirale falls and went there instead.
On being alerted about the issue, V N Bhat, vice president of Idagundi village gram panchayat, along with other villagers rushed to the spot and also informed firefighters about the issue. The villagers supplied food and water to the stranded people with the help of a rope. The firefighters tried to reach the other end of the stream where the tourists were stranded, but the attempts failed due to the flowing stream below.
The villagers suggested that they trek 2 km downstream where there is a small footbridge at Talikumbri village. However, on reaching the bridge they found that was also submerged. With the help of ladders the fire fighters managed to rescue the tourists.