Rescue Operation at Chanderi 

Saturday night (12/7/2014) @10pm I got a call by Tehsildar & and thane gramin police saying - A group of 48 people is stuck on Chanderi fort. Amongst the 48 people one of the participant is dead in a mishap at the location. Can you rescue them? I said yes and started my drive. I called up yogesh he then collect all our equipment and came my home to pick me up. Then I called another Badlapur based organization Ajinkya hikers (Ratnakar Thatte) to join us in the rescue operation (meanwhile they had also got the info about this situation). At 11.30 pm we, both the organizations were ready with all our mountaineering equipment.

Tehsildar Mr Amit Sanap sent jeep to pick us up for Chincholi the base village. We had a joint meeting with police officers fire brigade and tehsildar. We got the brief about the situation. Our task was to bring remaining 11 trekkers and 1 dead body to ground zero as early as possible. (Before this fire brigade and police tried going up but somehow they didn't succeed.)  at the end we finalized the team who will go up and do the rescue operation, that was Nisarg trust , Ajinkya hikers, 3 local villagers , Swapnil and his uncle (Vangani residents got this news and came there to help) total no was 13. It was a big challenge for the rescue team to get the dead body, which was of 100kg safely to ground zero.

We started climbing, didn’t take any break meanwhile and reached the desired location at 3.30am in the morning in between we came across two snakes but managed it well. As chanderi is tough to climb and not advisable place to go in monsoon we all were first time experiencing the monsoon night on fort. All surrounding picks were covered with a silver showl. Misty everywhere and windy. at 4 am Sunil distributed the hand gloves and mask (we didn’t get any while leaving Badlapur as it was 11.30pm but fortunately we got it from the ambulance at base village) and we started tying the dead body to the 8ft pole (metal pipe which we brought from village) here I have to mention Mr. Raju Shinde Senior trekker, we have religiously followed all the tips and instructions he gave us regarding tying the body to the pipe at the time of briefing session at ground zero, he stayed down with the backup team. Tying a dead body to the pipe was not that easy, as there was no place to stand, valley on both the sides with steep slope, and fine mud. Finally after 1.15hrs we manage to fix the body to pipe with the good quality mountaineering tape. (challenge here was we have to tie the body in such way that it should not move as there was no road and need to downhill the cliff it was important that there should not be any play at-all between body and pole. so from head to legs we tied around 200ft tape.) Here all of us suffered a tremendous back pain because of odd posture and cramped position.

At 5.15 we were ready to get down. And we started. In few mints we realized the limitation of our weight carrying capacity. But there was no other alternative. At this point Swapnil and his Uncle (who was 47years old) (both muscle men) played a vital role, they secured one side of a pole for a long time. At 7.30 am we manage to call down and ask for more man power. People from down were ready to pick up the body after the steep descent. (That point is after a waterfall) so our target came closer by 6km. this news came with a high energy and we started descending again. Securing body as well as ourselves was a lifetime experience. We were two organizations but gelled there like one family. After lots of twists and turns at 9.15 we reached the base of waterfall. From 8 am we could see that help is coming towards us (as we were on hight) and we were getting power to put a step forward.

We took a break at 9.15am relaxed, had water & biscuits splashed some water on face sat quietly for a minute. And realized our shoulders, back, fore arms, legs .... were paining badly. From here next 6km we got help to carry the body. These 6kms we covered in just 1.30 hrs and at 10.45 we reached to the ground zero. Mission accomplished. Police and fire Brigade were waiting for us. They took the charge of body and forwarded it for post mortem. Victims Parents were also there. Everyone was feeling pity. We took next 10 mins to untie our tape. The moment we untied our tape from body as expected the police ignored us as if we were not there. They didn’t take any cognizance of us. And they vanished from the location. We packed our bags and ordered a tea in nearby home. Till then Mr. Amit Sanap Tehsiledar arrange some drinking water biscuits and a tea for us. We had a good discussion regarding safety and importance of a trekking hobby. Then With Mr. Raju Shinde we discuss about all the scenario, what went wrong, what can be improved in next rescue and rest ... 
finally at 11.30 we left for our routine. 

It was a challenging task that we have completed safely. This task is completed by the joint work of Nisarg Trust, Ajinkya Highkers, Swapnil and his Uncle (Sorry I don’t remember his name and even don’t have any contact no. as it was raining we couldn’t carry mobiles or pen and paper)

 
Bit about the Chanderi - Chanderi is known for its roughness in monsoon, it is difficult to fix your step on scree, even the gradient is also high, The tradition of mountaineering in Maharashtra has begun from the Chanderi fort.

Who were they - it was a mumbai based trekking group. Most of the participants are from times of india group. They came to the chincholi at 7 am on 12.7.2014 Saturday for a one day trek to the chanderi. They systematically divided their group in 3, 15packs each. They hired 3 guides from local village so the ratio was 2 for 15 and I guess it’s the standard ratio for trek. They started climbing up, after the steep climb there is a V shape geography and they came on the ridge then they took left turn and climbed again. Till that point everything was fine after that there is an idol of a goddess and from their they traversed to the mountain to go to cave at that point a stone suddenly came down from the summit in a high speed and bad luck was it hit to one of the fittest participants head. He fell down and died on the spot.

In such type of cases we point fingers to the organizers being irresponsible trekkers or picnic hikers. But it was not the case this time. It was a sheer accident. Group was taking a traverse to the mountain to reach the cave. There one stone came down from pinnacle and hit the victim directly. Just a single stone. This can happen with anybody no experience or expertise can help in such situations.
Organisers tried their level best to take him down but as he was a muscle man gym trainer 90kg weight boy so they couldn't.

But they handled the situation very well. We met one of the lady of that group at 2.30am in the morning half way on route this was her 3rd round in a day but she was ready to come up again with us to show exactly where the body is. Of course we didn't take her up with us but she was willing & that’s a big thing.

The final questions are…… 
why to go for trekking?
why did he go there?
why one should put the life on steaks
what kind of hobby is this? Can’t u people enjoy anything else?
and many more...
what I feel is death is the only thing which is fixed otherwise we a leaving by an accident.
We are surrounded by such a things which can kill us anytime. But we cannot stop leaving, we travel by train, planes.... There r machines everywhere these can be more dangerous than trekking.
fish is for swim

bird is to fly

and man is to walk
walking on mountains is there in our genes. 

(to be continued….)