US trekker's death in Dharamsala raises questions over delayed rescue

Dharamsala, November 17

The death of a 30-year-old US citizen, Macmillan Anderson, while on a trekking expedition in Dhauladhar mountains here has raised questions over the delayed rescue operation, and that too despite the foreign national having sent out a distress message.

Hotel didn’t alert the police for two days

Nov 8: Macmillan alerts hotel owners ‘he is trapped and running low on food’

Hotel owners claim they immediately launched a search at their own level

Nov 10: Kangra police receive call from US embassy

Nov 11: A massive search operation launched in the Dhauladhars

Nov 15: Body found

The US citizen’s body was handed over to his relatives today. The autopsy showed he died of multiple injuries caused due to a fall from a cliff.

Sources said Macmillan had on November 8 messaged the owners of the hotel in Naddi where he had been staying that “he was trapped in mountains and running low on food”. The hotel employees claimed to have carried out a rescue operation on their own for two days, but without any success. The local administration and the police launched the rescue on November 11 and the body was found in a gorge uphill from Naddi on November 15.

Kangra SP Khushal Sharma said the US embassy alerted the police about their missing citizen late on November 10, and that the rescue was launched in the wee hours the next morning.

Asked if legal action would be initiated against the hotel owners for not alerting the authorities on time, he said no offence was made out on these grounds. The SP said the hotel owners informed them that after receiving the distress message, they “didn’t expect that Macmillan was trapped”. “Still, they tried to trace him with the help of local villagers. The hotel owners also said that Macmillan was in touch with his friends on November 9, but his phone went ‘out of reach’ on November 10. His friends informed the US embassy, who contacted the police,” Sharma said, adding that sniffer dogs, police parties and a team of local trekkers were sent into the Dhauladhars to trace Macmillan. He belonged to North Carolina.

Several trekkers, including foreigners, have died in the past after getting stuck deep in the Dhauladhars due to sudden change of weather or a fall from the hills. Last year, two local trekkers died after getting trapped in a snowstorm.

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