New Delhi: A 15-year-old girl, who had gone missing from the Chandradrona Hills near Chikkamagaluru in Karnataka three days ago during a family trek, was found dead on Friday.

Rescuers discovered Sreenanda’s body near Manikyadhara Falls on Friday noon. Initially, they located the girl through a drone camera and immediately reached the scene. After the rescuers arrived there, they found her dead.

It is suspected that the girl may have slipped into the falls in the darkness while she was trying to find her way out.

Superintendent of police Jitendra Kumar Dayama reportedly said that the exact cause of death can only be ascertained after the post-mortem report comes out. The statements of the girl’s parents and relatives who accompanied her have been recorded, police said.

On Tuesday, the Class 10 student went traceless. She was not to be found anywhere. Initially, family members searched for her but in vain. A formal complaint was filed next day by her relative, Shashikumar K G, a resident of Kerala’s Palakkad district.

Search operation

An extensive search operation was launched by the district police after she was reported missing. A number of teams were deployed across the rugged terrain to trace the girl.

The forest department and fire and emergency services personnel carried out the search operation. On Tuesday night, the operation was halted for some time because of darkness. It resumed the next day with additional SP Jayakumar joining the search efforts.

Similar incident

The incident comes only a few days after a similar case involving Kerala-based techie GS Sharanya, who went missing for four days while trekking in Karnataka’s Kodagu district. The woman survived in the forest on 500 ml water alone before being rescued.

Days after the 36-year-old tech professional was successfully rescued, local BJP leaders filed a police complaint alleging that the disappearance may have been staged for publicity. They demanded a thorough probe into her survival claims, and suspected that the disappearance was orchestrated. “A person couldn’t stay alive in a dense forest for four days without food,” according to the rural unit of the BJP.