Man climbs cliff in search of mobile network, falls into gorge, dies

Bisht said Rajendra Ram, a resident of Shama Kanoli village under Kapkot police station used to work in Delhi. He had come into the village during lockdown due to fear of the Covid-19 outbreak.

A 51-year-old man fell into a gorge from a cliff in Uttarakhand’s Bageshwar district while searching for a mobile network, said police.

Mobiles in the village hardly catch the network so my father climbed a cliff, said the deceased man’s son. (HT representative photo)

“We were informed by the villagers that a man’s body has been recovered from a gorge on Wednesday. He had climbed the cliff in search of a mobile network. Though it seems he fell by accident, we are investigating the case,” said Kailash Singh Bisht, in-charge, police station, Kapkot in Bageshwar.

Bisht said Rajendra Ram, a resident of Shama Kanoli village under Kapkot police station used to work in Delhi. He had come into the village during lockdown due to fear of the Covid-19 outbreak. He was planning to return to Delhi in 2-3 days. He wanted to talk to someone so he climbed a cliff to catch a mobile network.

When he didn’t return, his son Yogesh went to search him with other villagers and recovered his father’s body 100 metres down in the gorge. He informed the village head who alerted the police.

Yogesh said, “My father had to return to Delhi in 2-3 days but this accident took place. Mobiles in our village hardly catch the network so my father climbed a cliff.”

Kedar Singh Koshiyari, village head Shama, said, “People of our village face network problems so they have to climb on Malla Nokadi cliff to catch signals for their mobile phones which is 2 km from our village. We have requested administration for providing a network facility but our request is still pending.”