PALAKKAD: A 14-member police team, which went into the Malampuzha forest on Friday morning following information about a ganja cultivation, felt angry and tired when they realised that it was a false alarm. But even at that moment, they never imagined what awaited them was a nightmare of their lives. On their way back, the team led by narcotic cell DySP CD Sreenivas, lost their way in an area frequented by wild elephants and had to see off the night on a cliff, in biting cold and under incessant rain.
After spending more than 24 hours in the woods, forest officials came to their rescue and guided them safely back to Palakkad by Saturday evening. “It was really tough. We would have ended up in deep trouble, hadn’t the forest officials come to our rescue,” Sreenivas said.
“We left for the Malampuzha forest at 8am and reached Parapatti colony around 1.30pm. The information we received was that ganja was being cultivated on a grassland there. On reaching there, we found there was no ganja plant. Our plan was to destroy the ganja plants and return by evening,” he said.
“On our way into the forest, we had pinned all accessible points on Google Map, which helped us reach the place. While returning, we deviated a little and missed the Google Map points and reached near a waterfall. It was a steep place and since we were not able to get down, we walked further upstream.
By that time, it was 4.30pm. There was heavy mist and vision was poor. It was also raining heavily. We had to spend the entire night on the cliff,” added Sreenivas. It was late on Friday evening that the Palakkad police realised that their colleagues had lost their way and got stranded in the middle of the forest.