20-year-old student from Uttara Kannada, who had come with his friends, remains untraceable even after 10 days

Mysuru: As a student who went for swimming along with three of his friends at Cauvery Nisargadhama near Talakad in T. Narasipur taluk in the district 10 days ago (Aug. 15) continues to remain missing mysteriously, a team of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel along with Police have launched a search operation.

Amith, 20 years, son of Manjunath Bhat of Hadinbal, Honnavar taluk, Uttara Kannada district, is the student, who is feared drowned and continues to be untraceable, after he came to Cauvery Nisargadhama on a tour along with his friends. He was swimming with his friends, when he was washed away in strong currents of the river, while three of his friends were rescued by local people.

Learning about the incident, Talakad Police had rushed to the spot and conducted a search operation along with Fire and Emergency Services personnel and expert divers, besides using a drone, but all efforts had gone in vain. In this wake, the District Administration has deployed a team of NDRF personnel consisting 20 members that was camping in Kodagu and expert divers from NDRF unit, Bengaluru, for the search operation that was launched yesterday. The search operation began at 8 am, along with Policemen and Fire personnel on dinghy.

According to Talakad Police, there is no clue yet of the missing  youth even after the search operation was conducted till evening hours. The operation is being supervised by Circle Police Inspector of T. Narasipur and Tahsildar of T. Narasipur.

 On the day when Amith went missing, the body of Vinod Damodar Nayak (32), Manager at PLD Bank, Yalandur, who drowned in the same river had been traced 8 kms away near Kaveripura.

However, Amith continues to be untraceable, even though the force of water on that day was         still moderate.

Superintendent of Police (SP), Kodagu, K. Ramarajan, DySP (Nanjangud Sub-Division) Govindaraju and staff are involved in the rescue operation.