Himachal News- 17-members team of NDRF starts search for missing French trekkers in Dhouladhar ranges
Author(s): Arvind SharmaNational Disaster Response Force ( NDRF) team forming strategy for expedition to search for two missing French trekkers in Dharamsala on Saturday. City Air News photo: Shyam Sharma, Dharamsala Dharamsala, September...
Dharamsala, September 7, 2013: After reaching here, the 17- member team of the 7th National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) Battalion, Bathinda, Punjab, has started the search for the two missing French trekkers, on Saturday.
The team had arrived here on Friday.
The NDRF team is led by Inspector Shyam Lal.
Earlier Kangra police chief Balbir Thakur held a meeting with the NDRF officials at Dharamsala and briefed them about the entire search operation.
The Team will search for Valentin Marcel Gorges and Francois Xavier Camille, both in their early 20s, who had gone for trekking alongwith their group members to Tirund area on August 20. However, the duo took a different route from Triund and went ahead while the rest returned to the base camp in Dharamsala on August 22. Both of them have not been seen since then. The state search teams so far failed to locate them, beside a help from Army choppers due to regular bad weather in the area.
Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Manmohan Singh, who was made in-charge of the search operation later, chalked out a strategy with the NDRF team over search operation. The team left for Triund - the popular trekking route - in the afternoon.
The massive manhunt will continue for over a week. A team of 20 people, including police personnel, members of the Himalayan Trekkers Association, forest guards, locals from the shepherd community and porters, will assist the NDRF in the search operation. The base camp has been set up at Triund.