Amaravati, June 14 (IANS) The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel on Sunday joined the operation to search for a two-year-old girl who has been missing since June 6 from a palm oil plantation in Andhra Pradesh’s Kakinada district.

Following the directions of Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan, the NDRF entered the fray to trace Sunkara Gnaneswari.

State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) is already participating in the search operation. A 40-member SDRF team along with police, revenue, fire and forest department personnel continued their efforts to trace the child.

The search operation received a setback on Saturday with the death of the pet dog which was accompanying the girl when she went missing.

The dog was said to be behaving strangely ever since it returned home on June 9 and had not eaten anything.

According to officials, the pet dog walked for nearly 80 km since it was fitted with a GPS tracker. It died after it returned home from the orchards surrounding the village. It is suspected to have been infected with a virus.

Officials sent the dog’s body for post-mortem examination to find out the cause of its death.

Authorities are also using the drones to trace the girl. The district administration has announced a reward of Rs one lakh to anyone who provides clues leading to the girl.

The Deputy Chief Minister inquired about the incident and spoke to Kakinada district Superintendent of Police G. Bindu Madhav over the phone.

He directed that the services of NDRF teams should also be utilised alongside the ongoing search operations by police and SDRF teams. He advised taking the assistance of forest department night watchers, base camp watchers, and experts who can venture into dense forests, and conducting extensive searches in the surrounding forest areas.

State Home Minister V. Anitha is closely monitoring the situation. She has been in regular touch with the district officials.

The Kakinada SP explained that over 400 personnel are currently participating in the search operations to find the girl, and minute searches are being conducted using advanced drones. He informed that footage from 38 CCTV cameras around the girl’s home has been examined.

Gnaneswari went missing on June 6 from a palm oil plantation at Ch. Agraharam in Tuni mandal.

According to the police, the child had accompanied her parents, Sunkara Ganesh and Bhavani, who work as caretakers of the plantation along with their pet dog.

The girl went missing due to miscommunication between the parents. On reaching home, the couple realised neither of them had brought the girl back home from the plantation.

A villager spotted the girl near a hill along with her pet dog in the evening the same day. He attempted to bring her home, but the dog barked at him and prevented him from approaching the girl.

The next day, the couple lodged a complaint with the Tuni police, who swung into action. On June 9, the missing pet dog returned home without the girl.

The police on June 12 fitted the pet dog with a GPS tracking device in the hope of finding the missing child through its movements. However, the police could not get any clues, and the dog’s death added to the mystery.

–IANS

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