KOCHI: Ending 14 hours of anxiety and tension, three women, who went missing in the Kuttampuzha forest were rescued safely on Friday morning.
The women - Maya Jayan, 46, Parukutty, 62 and Darly Stephen, 55 - of Attikulam in Kuttampuzha panchayat, entered the forest on Thursday afternoon in search of the cattle they had released in the forest fringe area for grazing.
As the cows returned to the hamlet in the evening, the families approached the forest department after which the search was launched.
Four teams formed by the forest department in coordination with police and Fire and Rescue Services personnel scoured the forest area near Viripara and checkdam area on Thursday night but to no avail. Civil volunteers and residents too joined the forces for the search, which was stopped around 2am as there was elephant presence in the area.
Around 7.30am on Friday, the forest team re-launched the search and found the women perched atop a rock at Arakkamuthi located around 6km from the forest boundary. The team had brought modern equipment including drones for surveillance.
The terrain was rough and inaccessible. The presence of wild elephants was another challenge. Members of a team were chased by an elephant on Thursday night while searching for the trio.
“We are happy as the search has yielded results and we could rescue the women safely. The terrain and the presence of wild elephants were challenging. The visibility was also low in the morning due to mist,” said Malayattoor divisional forest officer Kurra Srinivas.
The women were brought to Panthapra around 9 am and the health department conducted a check up. They were tired due to the long journey and stress.
“While searching for the cattle we were caught in front of a herd of wild elephants and lost our way while trying to escape. We couldn’t contact our families as the phone was dead. Initially we took refuge inside a hollow tree but as the elephants came chasing us, we climbed atop a rock where we spent the entire night. Though we heard the calls of people we didn’t respond fearing elephants and hunter gangs,” said Maya.
“We were safe atop the rock jas elephants could not reach there. Though we were tired, we didn’t sleep due to fear. A herd of elephants was roaming the area till around 2 am,” said Parukutty.
The 40-member search team was led by forest range officer R Sanjeevkumar and Kuttampuzha CI P A Faizal.