The Indian tech-savvy Siddhant Vitthal Patil is feared dead after a drowning incident in the Glacier National Park, USA. His family said he had texted his mother from the park hours before the accident.
“Siddhant called his mother Priti from the park on Friday and said that he had been there for three days with six other friends from India, enjoying their stay,” revealed his maternal uncle Pritesh Chaudhari to Parami News.
Also two hours before the tragedy, being 26 years old Siddhant messaged his mother saying that he would be back in San Jose in three days where he was doing internship at Cadence Design Systems.
Therefore, it is clear that when searching for him, his friends provided IMEI numbers of his iPhone to the park rangers and other authorities. However, nothing has come out of this so far.
According to Chaudhari, Siddhant’s parents Priti and Vitthal who retired from Maharashtra irrigation department last May are traumatized and wordless.
“He gave my number as a contact person to US authorities so Suresh Sharma from Indian Consulate Seattle called me after what happened,” added Chaudhari. He has been communicating with the consulate since Monday.
Some leaders including Sharad Pawar and Devendra Fadnavis sought assistance from the government on behalf of Maharashtra. Union Minister Murlidhar Mohol of Pune spoke to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar regarding search efforts’ status updates.
He went to study MS Program at University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) in 2020 and then joined Cadence in 2023 according to Siddhanth.
However despite aerial searches by helicopters, there has been no sighting of Sidhdhanths body; hence officials think that it could be stuck below submerged barriers like fallen trees or rocks. Rangers have started picking up personal belongings washed downstream while keeping watch over that region.
Efforts to use a drone to trace the corpse failed. Siddhant is believed to have died by authorities.
