Mission Arjun to resume: Inspection of Gangavali River to happen today

ANKOLA (NORTH KARNATAKA): The Gangavali River will be inspected on Tuesday afternoon ahead of resuming the search for Kozhikode native Arjun who went missing in the Shirur landslide. The Karnataka government is of the view that the search mission is impossible without the strength of the undercurrent in the river going down.

The inspection of the river is being conducted today according to the decision of the emergency meeting held at Karwar on Monday evening. Before the Karwar meeting, the Navy had reached the Gangavali river and checked the current. Uttara Kannada District Collector Lakshmi Priya, District Superintendent of Police M Narayana, Karwar MLA Satish Krishna Sail, Navy officials and others attended the meeting. Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar had earlier said that a search cannot be carried out in the Gangavali river due to the strong current. The Karnataka government had informed the High Court about this. However, the Karnataka High Court had ordered a joint search under the central and state governments.

The truck Arjun was travelling in went missing in a landslide at Shirur on National Highway 66 on the morning of July 16. The army had detected the presence of a large metal object in the riverbed during a drone search, but it has not yet been able to locate the truck. The 13-day search on land and water has yielded no trace. It is suspected that Arjun was trapped inside the truck in the mud that accumulated in the river due to the landslide.