WARANGAL: Eighty-two visitors, along with the 10 cars and 15 bikes they travelled in, to the Mutyam Dhara Waterfall were stranded in the dense forest as a water stream overflow cut off their passage in Mulugu district on Wednesday.
Official sources said that the police had restricted them on their onward journey towards the waterfall in the morning, warning that they may face problems due to heavy rains. But, the visitors ignored the warning and took another route, by parking their vehicles at Veerabhadrampuram and walking nine kilometres of dense forest ground to reach the spot.
Superintendent of Police Gouse Alam said that the Dial-100 helpline received a phone call from one of the visitors, stating that people were stranded in the dense forest. Upon receiving the information, the police and NDRF teams swung into action.
Since the teams could only walk to the spot, amid heavy rainfall, the visitors were asked to save their mobile phone batteries so that they could be traced easily. Rescue operations were intensified to save the visitors.
Meanwhile, a man identified as Manupati Venkatesh, 22, of Kisan Nagar of Karimnagar district, died in a fall at the Sabitham Waterfall in Peddapalli district on Wednesday.
The police and rescue teams recovered the body and sent it to a government hospital for a post-mortem examination. They also warned the public against visiting waterfalls due to heavy water flow and the risk of flooding due to heavy and incessant rainfall.
