After the local rescuers failed to locate the Russian paragliders who went missing three days ago, Kangra police on Monday launched a man hunt to trace him.
Victor, accompanying the missing paraglider, along with the help of a local Suresh Thakur lodged a formal missing report of Alex, the 32–year old Russian paraglider, with police at Baijnath police station on Monday.
Victor informed police that Alex took off from Birh on Friday morning and was still untraceable. Victor and few other Russian paragliders had gathered at Birh for the paragliding competion which was later called off. They set off a search with the assistance of villagers to trace missing Alex.
However, when they failed to locate Alex, they approached the local administration in Baijnath for tracing the missing Para gliders ‘Russian accompanying the missing paraglider had lodged a formal compliant with police, this morning’’ said SSP Kangra Dr Atul Fulzele.
Unconfirmed reports said that paraglider had probably crossed over the high mountain ranges and landed somewhere in the interior areas of tribal Bharmour which is adjoining to Baijnath. "There are some reports that paraglider was spotted by taxi driver in Chamba. We are trying to confirm the veracity of reports emerging from varied sources," SSP Atul Fulzele told Hindustan Times.
The police has constituted two teams to locate the missing paraglider. A team had been sent to search the paragliders in high mountain region in the areas of Baijnath, while the other team had been sent to Chamba district. Kangra police has also forwarded the file pictures of the missing paraglider to Police posts in Chamba and Mandi district.
Suresh Thakur, a youth from Birh village who heads Friends Associate, adventure sport firm engaged in rescue and retrieval of paragliders for the past six years had also desptached some local trekker to locate the Russian paraglider. Local trekkers were unable to locate the Russian paraglider since his Global Position System was not functioning.
Meanwhile, the local rescue workers finally traced another Russian paraglider Demitri who had took off from Billing on Sunday and got struck in mountainous terrain 14 kilometres off the main town towards army cantonment.
The paraglider reportedly suffered injury on his leg, consequently he had to spent one night in open e was finally rescued during the afternoon, when the local trekkers reached him in the afternoon.
Interestingly, the local administration did not provide assistance for the rescue of the Russian paraglider.
Paragliders from different countries had converged in Birh for the annual aero sports event. However, this year as the Himachal Tourism Development Corporation is refurbishing the site, the Pragliding World Cup was cancelled and the local paragliders decided to hold the adventure sports event on their own.
The paraglider reportedly suffered injury on his leg, consequently he had to spent one night in open e was finally rescued during the afternoon, when the local trekkers reached him in the afternoon.
Interestingly, the local administration did not provide assistance for the rescue of the Russian paraglider.
Paragliders from different countries had converged in Birh for the annual aero sports event. However, this year as the Himachal Tourism Development Corporation is refurbishing the site, the Pragliding World Cup was cancelled and the local paragliders decided to hold the adventure sports event on their own.
Aero Sports club of India had denied permission to the locals to hold the paragliding competition citing safety concerns.