Written by Aditi RajaVadodara | Updated: October 14, 2025 08:59 PM IST 4 min readChaudhary swiftly contacted the forest department and sent a police team and home guards to the spot – located across the Narmada River from the Statue of Unity and part of the Zarwani Eco-tourism site. (Source: File)Around 3 PM on Sunday, Police Inspector (PI) M K Chaudhary of the Ekta Nagar police station in Narmada received information that five youngsters from Andhra Pradesh – second year engineering students at a private University in Vadodara – sent an SOS message seeking to be rescued from the Tungai forest area, where they “lost their way” during a trek.Chaudhary swiftly contacted the forest department and sent a police team and home guards to the spot – located across the Narmada River from the Statue of Unity and part of the Zarwani Eco-tourism site.The SOS message was sent by the mother of one of the students, who is also a Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leader from Andhra Pradesh, and received a prompt response from Minister of State for Home, Harsh Sanghavi. For the next two-and-a-half hours, a team of seven persons looked for the five students across an area of 10 km. With the help of local residents, the students were traced to the Tungai hills area in Narmada, where they had trekked for nearly five km following Global Positioning System (GPS) before “losing their way”.A forest official said, “The area is a dense forest and as it is part of the eco-tourism circuit, several tourists arrive every weekend.The best advice to people trekking here for the first time is to seek assistance from local villagers in exchange for a small tip as they are well versed with the routes. It is not a place one can navigate on phone apps… The area merges with the Shoolpaneshwar Wildlife sanctuary almost without caution.”PI Chaudhary told The Indian Express on Tuesday, “We got to know about them (the five students) through social media and also the forest guards. A joint team went to look for them around the Tungai Hills area, where they had trekked almost to the top. They were concerned as they had also run out of water. We reached out to local villagers, who also helped us in tracing them quickly.”The five students were later identified as Hitesh Suresh Penmusu, Himatej Swami, Vikiyat Chiliyala, Sushil Bhandaru and Likhit Meka, who alerted his mother Subhashini M, a former state organising secretary of the TDP, about the crisis in the core forest area. Meka said, “We are thankful to the Gujarat police for reaching out for us… We were safely rescued from the forest. The maps gave direction until the base of a hill. If one decides to undertake the trek independently, it can take up to four hours but taking a guide can reduce the time significantly.”Story continues below this adChaudhary added that the students were brought to the Ekta Nagar police station. “They were a bit shaken so we asked them if they would like to stay over but they decided to leave for Vadodara by their own motorcycles,” Chaudhary said.The Tungai Mata Hill, known for its scenic views of the mountains as well as the Statue of Unity, is located close to the Zarwani waterfall and is around 3.5 km from the Eco-campsite – around 19 km away from SoU across the Narmada River. Trekkers planning a hike to Tungai hills usually rely on local assistance to find their way to the hill and back from a location called Bhangda Faliyu.The official adds that the climb up the Tungai hill is a steep trail around five km and although the Zarwani campsite is “increasingly becoming popular”, the mountain trek is undertaken by few. “The upward climb is steep as the hill is nearly 750 metres high and it can take around four hours and there are no stalls selling food or water as it is a thick forest area which is not frequented by many visitors…. Trekkers must carry sufficient water and snacks as well as poles to help in the climb. Without these, the journey can be a daunting task.”Stay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd