Kerala girl, missing for days during family trip to Karnataka, found dead in gorge

A Class 10 student from Kerala who went missing during a family trip to Manikyadhara Falls in the Chandradrona hill range was found dead on Friday, three days after she disappeared, police said.

The victim, a 15-year-old from Palakkad, had been missing since Tuesday evening after she went trekking in the hills. She was the daughter of Ramesh and Rohini from Kadampazhipuram in Palakkad.

Search operations had intensified over the past three days at Manikyadhara Falls and the Baba Budan Giri hills, where she was last seen. The girl was part of a group of around 40 relatives who had travelled from Palakkad for a family holiday.

According to police, the girl went missing at around 5.30 pm on Tuesday while at the falls with her family. Her relatives searched for her until about 8 pm before alerting authorities.

Following the report, police and forest department personnel launched a large-scale search operation in the area. Thermal drones were deployed, and disaster management teams also joined the efforts as the search continued through Thursday without success.

Her body was eventually located on Friday in a deep gorge estimated to be over 1,500 feet near the waterfall, not far from where she was reported missing. Police said the body was first spotted with the help of a drone camera.

“The body has been traced, and the clothes she was wearing are intact. The body will be sent for a post-mortem, and further procedures are underway,” Chikkamagaluru Superintendent of Police Jitendra Kumar Dayama told PTI.

Officials said an investigation is underway to determine whether the death was caused by an accidental fall into the gorge or due to some other reason, with all angles being probed.

In a separate recent incident in Kodagu district, a 36-year-old woman from Kerala who went missing while trekking in the Tadiandamol hills was later traced and reunited with her family.

- Ends