Sushma Soma, an award-winning Carnatic vocalist who is based in Singapore and Chennai, recently took to social media to inform that her husband, Shrinivas Sainis Dattatraya, has gone missing after reaching the summit of Mount Everest on Friday.
According to a petition on the website Change.org, Mr Shrinivas, 39, set out from Singapore to Nepal to climb the world's highest peak last month. He was due to return home on June 4. However, on Friday, he sent a message to his wife saying that he had reached the summit of Everest, but he was unlikely to make it back down.
Calling urgent attention to the situation, Anoushka Shankar, daughter of Pandit Ravi Shankar, urged her followers to help her friend, Sushma Soma. "My friend's husband has gone missing. Please sign the petition to help mobilise a search and rescue. The link is in my stories and bio," she wrote.
In the petition, Mr Shrinivas' cousin, Divya Bharath said that the 39-year-old seemed to have suffered frostbite and altitude sickness. Separately, speaking to Straits Times, Ms Soma said that the last time she spoke to her husband, he told her that he had come down with high-altitude cerebral edema (Hace), which is a severe type of high-altitude illness that could prove fatal.
On Saturday, Ms Soma learnt that the two Sherpas Mr Shrinivas was with, as well as another person in the group, made it down from the mountain, but her husband never did.
"He (Mr Shrinivas) seems to have separated himself from the rest of his group and fallen down at around 8000m, likely onto the Tibetan side of the mountain. An able team of sherpas has begun the search operation this morning, but we realise we have got to do more and act faster," the petition read.
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It further added that the family had reached out to the relevant governments. And in response, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) said that Singapore High Commission in New Delhi has been in close contact with the family of Mr Shrinivas, local authorities in Nepal and emergency medical services since Friday evening.
"Search and rescue operations are ongoing. MFA will continue to monitor developments and render the necessary consular support to the family during this difficult time," Ms Soma told Straits Times.
Mr Shrinivas' family members started a petition on Change.org to help bolster support for ongoing search efforts.The petition said a team of Sherpas embarked on a search operation on Saturday morning, but added that there is more to do and a need to act faster. So Far, the petition has obtained 7,200 signatures.
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