Pune youth goes missing in US, family seeks urgent help

A Pune youth drowned in the waters of Glacier National Park in the US state of Montana and has been missing since July 6 according to a park spokespersonSiddhant Vittal Patil a techie living in California was hiking at the park with seven other friends when he went into Avalanche Creek on Saturday morningPatil entered the creek either by slipping or losing his balance on a large rock He went underwater briefly resurfaced and then was swept up by the current and into the gorgeAccording to his friends who witnessed the fall Siddhant was hiking and had diverted from the trail while standing on a large rock above the gorgeHe slipped and fell into the creek below Pritesh Chaudhari Siddhants uncle told ANIAerial searches were conducted by ALERT helicopters over the creek and the surrounding area while more than 10 rangers looked for the man along the creek and assisted in the search on footThe rangers have confirmed that some personal items have been recovered downstream The area is still being monitored by GNP rangers however the water in the gorge is not searchable due to the strong currents caused by the whitewater conditions in Avalanche CreekPark officials said the runoff is very high in the creek and rangers cannot enter the gorge until the water level dips downThe rangers said that it would take weeks or months for the search operations to start again once the water level reduces They have received Siddhants Apple Watch details on Monday itself and arent able to decode it Chaudhari addedGNP says rangers flew a drone over Avalanche Creek on July 10 to attempt to locate the missing person however the effort was unsuccessfulSiddhant is the only child of his parents and they were hopeful that he may be stuck somewhere safely Not enough effort is being put in by the authorities Chaudhari alleged and appealed to authorities to take prompt actionThe family has also appealed to hire private rangers to carry out search operationsThe maternal uncle further said that since several days have passed without any news his family is going through a difficult time not knowing his whereaboutsFurther Prem Bhandari a prominent voice of the Indian diaspora told ANI that the family is in extreme grief and has been in constant touch with me As a member of the Indian diaspora I am trying to reach out to the authorities so that there can be some closure in this caseThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever