WB-MOUNTAINEER LOCATOR

Satellite-aided locator could help mountaineers: Climbers
    Kolkata, Aug 18 (PTI) A satellite-aided device that
pinpoints the exact location of the user could be of help to
mountaineers, who face risk to their lives while summiting the
Himalayan peaks, climbers said.
    Similar devices are already in use in the country's
aviation and maritime sectors along with the government-backed
search and rescue (SAR) infrastructure.
    A number of mountaineers, both from within and outside
the country, died this season summiting Mt Everest and the
other "eight thousanders" in the Himalayas.
    Some of them might have been saved if rescuers had the
Personal Locator Beacon (PLB) that could pinpoint their exact
location, the climbers said.
    A senior official of the Indian Space Research
Organisation (ISRO), which takes care of the satellite-related
functions of SAR, has supported the effectiveness of PLB in
mountaineering.
    "ISRO supports your suggestion to make PLBs of Search
and Rescue System compulsory to the mountaineering
teams/members and this should be brought to the notice of
concerned authority as it does not fall under the purview of
INMCC (Indian Mission Control Center)-ISRO," said P V
Venkitakrishnan, director, Capacity Building Programme Office,
ISRO, in an email to a communication enthusiast.
    Arya Ghosh, the communication aficionado and a member
of the American Radio Relay League, the world's largest body
of amateur radio enthusiasts, had written to ISRO suggesting
the possibility of making PLBs mandatory for mountaineers
following the disappearance of them in recent times.
    A team of eight mountaineers had gone missing while
advancing to Nanda Devi East peak on May 25 this year. It
took the ITBP nearly one month to retrieve seven bodies on
June 23 after a massive operation often hampered by inclement
weather.
    The body of the team leader is yet to be found as is
the mortal remains of Chhanda Gayen, who lost her life in an
avalanche while descending the western side of Mt Kanchenjunga
in 2014.
    The body of famed climber Dipankar Ghosh was also
found after a five-day search. He had gone missing on May 17
this year while returning after a successful expedition of Mt
Makalu in Nepal.
    A device like the PLB might have been able to save a
few of these lives, Arya Ghosh said.
    "If such a technology is available, we should go for
it. But it should not flout government rules and has to be
affordable. In most cases the mountaineers find it difficult
to raise funds for an expedition," said Debdas Nandi, noted
climber and advisor to the West Bengal Mountaineering and
Adventure Sports Foundation.
    The foundation operates under the West Bengal
government's Department of Youth Services and Sports.
    Mountaineers Soma Bhattacharya and Suman Guha Neogi
said the PLB appears to be a better device than cell phones,
satellite phones, GPS receiver and the like which are carried
during expeditions.
    They suggested if the government could arrange for the
device and rent it to trekkers or mountaineers, it would be of
immense help to adventure sports enthusiasts.
    Ghosh said a PLB-like device would cut down the time
taken to locate a mountaineer in peril by a rescue team to a
few seconds, provided of course there are no obstructions to
the signals it emits.
    The Emergency Locator Transmitters in aircraft and
Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacons in ships are
variants of the PLB, he added. PTI NN KK
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(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from a PTI feed.)