On Monday afternoon, 17 trekkers from Kalyan, who were stuck at Harishchandragadh in Junnar were successfully rescued by a team of professional trekkers, police officials, and villagers. The trekkers found themselves stuck at Konkankada at sunset and called for help.

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Dr Hitesh Advani and 16 other trekkers reached the ground 24 hours after they began their trek on Sunday.

At 10 am on Sunday, they had started their trek from Harishchandragad with a group of 22 people. "On the evening of 22nd, five people returned and 17 of us continued to trek to Konkankada," says Advani, a dentist from Ulhasnagar.

Upon sunset, the trekkers realised that they cannot continue with their expedition anymore. "We could neither go back nor forward with our trek and found ourselves stuck at 1000 feet at Konkankada," he says. Hence, they felt that it was time to seek help and in desperation called 100. "But there was no response so called up 101 which was fire brigade's number. And explained our problem," he says. Harishchandragad is at an altitude of 1500 meters.

The fire brigade informed all the concerned authorities and efforts were made from Thane district collectorate as well as local police to get the trekkers down. At 6 am on Monday, a team of NDRF (National Disaster Relief Force) left from Lonavala and reached the spot at 10 am. By 1.30 pm, all the trekkers were brought down safely.

"This was my third time at Harishchandragad. I have done tough trekking at Himkund, Khir Ganga, which are at higher altitude. The problem over there is due to lack of oxygen," says Advani who have been trekking for the past three to four years. "But here it was all due to bad timing as we started late," he adds.

Thane district collector Dr Rajesh Narvekar said that all the trekkers are back on ground level safely. "We made arrangements for their food and medical aid and for their transportation to their destinations," he said.