Malli Mastan Babu. Image from Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Rescue-Malli-Mastan-Babu
One of India's top mountaineers, Malli Mastan Babu, who went on an excursion in the Andes mountains in South America, between Argentina and Chile, has been found dead after he went missing on March 24.
According to this report by NDTV, The Ministry of External Affairs was coordinating with authorities in South America over the search for Babu and his sister, Dorasanamma, reached Argentina to oversee the search operations.
The news was confirmed as a Facebook page dedicated to the ace mountaineer, 'Rescue Malli Mastan Babu' uploaded a status saying, "Mountains retained its favourite child.. R.I.P Malli Mastan Babu."
Forty-year-old Babu, a native of Nellore in Andhra Pradesh, was in South America to climb the 21,748 feet-high mountain called Cerro Tres Cruces Sur. Once it was done, Babu and his friends had started their ascent from the Argentinean side towards the summit that lies on the Chilean side of the Andes.
Zee news reports that Babu and his group were at the base camp on March 24 when he apparently set off alone to check out the route up. The weather conditions became much worse soon afterwards and he had been missing since then.
According to his sister, Dr Malli Dorasanamma, the weather is to be blamed entirely. "It appears that from the base camp he set off alone. The rain worsened after he left. He was supposed to return on the 24th, but did not. The area gets a lot of rains and floods," she said, in this TOI report.
Babu was an IIM Kolkata and IIT Kharagpur alumnus, and was also the first person in the world to complete 7 summits on seven days of the week and one in each calendar month. He trekked extensively in Indian and Nepal Himalayas, and undertook the coveted 'Grand circuit' trek of Torres Del Paine National Park in Chile.
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