MAHENDRANAGAR: A massive joint security search operation concluded successfully on Monday after multiple groups of women, who went missing while illegally picking mushrooms inside Kanchanpur’s Shuklaphanta National Park, were tracked down safe and sound.

The women, who had entered the protected forests from Bhimdatta Municipality-19 and Beldadi Rural Municipality-2, lost contact on Sunday, prompting an immediate full-scale emergency mobilization of military, police, and park authorities.

The missing women from Bagphanta, Bhimdatta Municipality-19, successfully established contact with their families following an intensive sweep of the park by the Nepali Army.

Lieutenant Colonel Prakash Ghimire, Chief of the Ransingh Dal Battalion, confirmed their safety, stating that a comprehensive search operation had been launched inside the park by mobilizing all available mechanisms before receiving word that the women were safe and back in touch with their relatives.

Simultaneously, a military team led by Lieutenant Suman GC successfully located and rescued three other women from Beldadi Rural Municipality-2 who had been stranded in the dense forest since Sunday evening.

They were safely extracted on Monday morning and reunited with their families.

As foraging inside the national park is both illegal and highly hazardous, the sudden disappearance of three separate groups had triggered a massive, coordinated rescue mission involving the Nepali Army, Nepal Police, Armed Police Force, Municipal Police, and the park administration.