Two trekkers die during outing in Himachal, pet dog guards their bodies for 48 hours

Two trekkers, who were out for an outing in Himachal Pradesh's Billing Valley, died after falling into a gorge. One of them was a woman. For two days, they were not found, but their pet German Shepherd dog, which was accompanying them, remained beside its master and the woman and kept barking till they were found by the rescue teams on Tuesday.

The trekkers who died are identified as Abhinandan Gupta (30) from Punjab's Pathankot and Pranita Wala (26) from Pune. Authorities said that the post-mortem would confirm the cause of death.

Kangra district police chief Veer Bahadur said that Abhinandan Gupta had been living in the area for the past four years for paragliding and trekking activities. Whereas, the woman arrived from Pune a few days back and set out after a round of snowfall.

Veer Bahadur also said, "The preliminary probe has found that a group of four people, two of them women, set out in a car. When the car could not proceed beyond a point, they started walking. As the weather changed, two people in the group backed off and returned to safety with the help of others there. But Gupta reportedly said that he knows the route and he, Pranita and the dog went on their way."

The missing complaint of the two was registered by another group. Later on, a search party was sent to look for them. One of the members of the rescue team said, "This is a steep area and turns very slippery during snowfall. It appears they slipped and fell. They managed to get up once, but slipped again."

The bodies have now been handed over to the families after autopsy.

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