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Five cabbies rescue Bengaluru trekker near Subrahmanya

A team of five taxi drivers acted with alacrity and carried an injured woman trekker on a stretcher to Subrahmanya in one of the most perilous trails in Dakshina Kannada district's Sullia taluk recently.


The 25-year-old woman was part of a 23-member group from Bengaluru which arrived in the temple town and trekked till Kumara Parvatha - a distance of 12km - on Saturday.

The group was rankled by fear and worries when the woman slipped and suffered a fracture near Girigadde around 7pm. The mishap rendered the woman virtually immobile.

After frantic calls on the feeble mobile network, Kusumadhara Aradhana, president of Subrahmanya Taxi Owners' and Drivers' Association, responded to the distress call. He, in turn, messaged his friends, summoning help to bring the injured woman trekker to the base camp.

Kusumadhara told TOI the woman couldn't move an inch. "Her teammates managed to carry her till a shed in Pushpagiri Wildlife Range late Saturday evening and spent the night there. Around 10.30am the next day, I received a call from zonal forest officers seeking help," he said.

Rescue strategy planned

After his message, five cab drivers set aside their assignments and met up to discuss the rescue strategy. "We rushed to Subrahmanya government hospital and borrowed a stretcher. Around 11.45am, we started trekking towards the spot and reached by 2.30pm," he said.

After lunch, the team was ready for its toughest task: That of climbing down with the woman fastened to the stretcher with clothes. "We left the Pushpagiri shed by 3pm. The stretch is dangerous, made worse by the responsibility we had hoisted on ourselves. We reached the temple town by 6.30pm covering about 9km. The team of trekkers decided to travel to Bengaluru for the woman's further treatment," he said.

The rescue team comprised Dharmapal Gopali, Krishnakumar Shetty Subrahmanya, Jeevan Subrahmanya and Sundara Gowda Keru.

About a month ago, Santhosh, 25, an IT professional and trekker from Bengaluru, went missing at Kumara Parvatha and was found 42 hours later.

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