Five Kerala men use navigation app through dense forest, get stranded amid rains
An official clarified that the men actually did not get lost as their indeed was a way through the forest. They just got stuck in a muddy pit due to the rains.
A group of five men in north Kerala's Nilambur used a navigation app through a dense forest and ended up getting stranded there in the middle of the night amid heavy rainfall.
On Sunday, the group followed the forest path using a popular navigation app and ended up in the middle of nowhere in a dense forest, reported PTI.
Fortunately, Fire and Rescue Service personnel rescued them from the forest. An official said that the men, hailing from Wayanad's Kalpetta, were on their way to attend a function in Nilambur.
They used the navigation app as they were unfamiliar with this route in the district. A fire and rescue official clarified that they did not "actually" lose their way.
"There is a path through the forest that leads to their destination in Nilambur. However, it was raining heavily when they entered the forest at night, and their car got stuck in one of the marshy pits," the official added.
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Additionally, the area was quite scary for the men as it was frequented by wild animals, including boars and elephants.
The five passengers somehow managed to make contact with the local fire station, from where a team of personnel were immediately dispatched to the scene.
The official said that their car broke down after getting stuck in the pit. "So we had to tow it by tying it to our vehicle with a rope," the officer said, adding that the five men later continued their journey to the function in Nilambur.
In the past as well, several such cases of misleading navigation have got people stranded or ended up at different destinations than their desired ones.
Previous incidents of ‘misleading’ navigation
Earlier in March, a man in Uttar Pradesh's Noida lost his life after his car reportedly fell into a 30-feet-deep drain. The locals in the area claimed that he was misled to the drain due to wrong navigation on his. However, police said that there was no confirmation to support this claim as the deceased's mobile phone had not been recovered.
Police officials said that the deceased was on his way to a wedding function when the accident took place, adding that there were no warning signs at the end of the road, due to which the car might have lost control and fallen into the drain.
In late January, two French tourists used Google Maps to travel to Nepal's capital city of Kathmandu from Delhi but ended up getting lost and stranded in Uttar Pradesh's Bareilly.
The two men were using Google Maps to navigate but reportedly got lost in the Churaili Dam area when they used a shortcut suggested by the navigation app.
Later, villagers spotted the two French men on a deserted road late at night and took them to the nearest police station for help.
