How Pet German Shepherd Led Rescue Teams To Missing Tourists Who Died On Walking Trail

The police found the bodies of two people who died allegedly after slipping and falling in the snow in Himachal Pradesh’s Billing Valley. A pet dog stood guard over them for almost two days, officials said.

The two tourists, including a woman, went missing on Sunday. The rescue teams searching for the two on Tuesday heard the barks of the German Shepherd, the police said.

On following the sound, they reached the bodies that were lying on the side of a walking trail, three kilometres below the take-off point for paragliders, they added.

For almost two days, the dog, named Alpha, guarded the bodies, which bore marks of attack by wild animals, according to the police.

When the rescue teams removed the bodies, the dog accompanied them to Bir on foot from where the man’s family took him, the police said. The victims, identified as Abhinandan Gupta (30), a resident of Pathankot, and his friend Pranita Wala (26) from Pune, had arrived in Bir Billing, a famous paragliding destination in Himachal Pradesh’s Kangra district, on Sunday afternoon.

The two came in a private car along with Mr Gupta’s dog. After parking the car, they left on foot to the take-off point for paragliders.

When the two did not return to Chogan near Bir, their friends on Monday informed the police, following which a rescue team launched a search operation and recovered the bodies on Tuesday.

Preliminary investigation suggests that the man and the woman slipped in the snow, sustained injuries, and died due to extreme cold, Kangra ASP Veer Bahadur said.

The autopsy report will reveal the circumstances under which both the two died, he said.

Mr Gupta lived in a rented house near Chaugan in Bir for the last five years, while the girl came to Bir a few days ago, the police said.