Geo Group did not have access to resources like Wikimapia, Google Earth and DARPA. They were not a part of police. Even the police stations in most places did not have officers who were well versed in these resources. As their districts did not have any major city, so they did not have access to quality resources.
Geo Group's members decided to keep their members and activities a top secret. At the final stage, they would disclose their findings with the police and relevant members of society. They needed the freedom to pursue every line of study and did not want to get unfairly restricted.
They were not breaking any police rule. As this was not a public group, which was spreading things to harm the search, they carried on. In fact, days had ticked by and no one had any idea of the whereabouts of Tina, Raj and Nishit. So, they tried to hasten the search process. Their group was much like space research centers employing human computers (mathematicians) before the advent of machine computers in 1960s and 1970s. Spacecrafts had also been launched in the era of human computers.
The mind is a unique tool. It can be a divine blessing to humankind. Like knife, it can be a life-saver in the kitchen or be a life-taker in a crime scene. Each of them had been blessed with a unique mind. So, anything they could do, they would. Anything was beyond them, they hoped for a miracle there!
Can only the fanciest of equipment only produce the best results? It gives you the opportunity to produce better compared to production due to lack of equipment or limited equipment. It adds an extra edge to the work. But, it is not always necessarily true that only fancy equipment contributes extraordinary results.
Fancy equipment without the right thinkers or users might yield no results too! Sometimes, with limited or no resources, focusing on brainstorming, dedication, perseverance and thinking skills can produce extraordinary results. Geo group was determined to not let their limitations hamper them from getting the needed results.
The teachers and the lecturer collected contour maps of the two districts to trace their travel route. They divided the 16 into groups of three. Each of the 3 groups was assigned certain places to study during group studies.
Initially, they invited the Trio, to present area description during discussion of an area. The discussion followed their route from Nimbushay, mud path, ghat road with few tiny potholes(?), toll booth area, jungle stream, culvert and Preshan.
There was a milestone where the van broke down. They were 5 kms away from Nimbushay. Reshab, the Geography Whiz and avid quizzer volunteered this information. Now, they checked for the road between Nimbushay and Timbush and located the spot. They had carried on in the direction of Timbush and left the main road.
From that milestone, they checked for contour line connecting the main road to side mud paths and from the contour lines after that milestone, they checked for gentle slope and dip too! They marked all such possible areas which were adjacent to ghat roads. There were 12 such areas.
Next, they located two culverts on the road from Loshan to Nimbushay via Preshan. Now, Leena and Shreyas said they were on the last culvert while Lisha thought that they caught the bus from second to last culvert to Preshan. (Toll booths are not found on Contour maps unlike Google Earth).
However, the Trio followed the two streams, they tried to obtain any ghat road adjacent to the streams. They removed 6 areas from the previous list and were left with 6 areas. Let us ask our parents to call the three gracious people who lent their mobile phones.
Out of the three, one of them could not recall. The other two were regular travellers. They conveyed that they would never forget the incident as it was memorable indeed! They recognized the stoppage point as the last culvert.
The faculty asked them some questions. They had never gone deep into the jungle. Nevertheless, the faculty invited them over for a few days and promised them Travel Allowance and local hospitality. The faculty also requested them to bring over any frequent travellers they knew!
Considering last culvert, eliminated two of the places. They were left with 4 places! As the Trio had not come across any settlements, so they only considered the length of the stream from the culvert to the first settlement. So finally, this left them with a total of 3 places. All of these three were sparsely populated places and were in green due to the jungles. Only the ghat roads were visible.
Next, they used district maps to follow the 3 ghat roads. The three teachers randomly went to the third nearest toll gate near a town and obtained a map of toll gates as they suspected that the kidnappers might have paid the toll gate people to not share anything or mislead them. The person graciously said that on those 3 ghat roads, only two of them had toll gates.
One of the co-passengers was coming from the third toll gate which they struck off. He brought photos. The Trio validated that it was not the place. They passed on this information to the police, stating two probable places. As the Truth followers did not trust the police much, they simultaneously decided to form a search party on the same day. Some of them stayed with the children. Even some Promdhus and others decided to search. The search party was decided on the same day. They could not lose the lead as unjust police could tip off Promdhu extremists.
The co-passengers also decided to form search parties with people from their towns and villages. The school teachers, agonizing parents and supportive parents from Nimbushay went in the same day. Early morning, Geo group formed these conclusions. They did not lose any valuable time.
Leena had submitted two copies of drawing the toll both gate escape. She also gave them two very detailed copies of the flora and fauna there. This was to aid their search.
The adults divided themselves into two search parties and reached the two toll booths. Each of the two parties against split into two going in either direction of toll booth. They were all given photos of the Missing Trio.
No children and teenagers were allowed on these trips! They were all home and supervised by parents or family friends. A couple who was allotted to remain took care of their children and other children. They were all so panicked that they constantly monitored the young. Not able to play outside, the young people felt quite suffocated!
Later, they organized a prayer service for the missing Trio. Now, the young people stopped fidgeting and prayed their hearts out. Hope is powerful. To not snuff out the embers of hope keeps it undying and yearning for their friends to be back.
The police and journalists were very surprised on encountering so many people in the search party. Two search parties went in either direction of toll booth. After they came down the ghat road, some continued in the road and others started off in the mud path.
The parties were very organized. The leader of the search party of each of the four groups noted the name, place, signature and phone number of every person. Each person had a tool bag and submitted copy of ID proof before starting out. Two people remained at each toll booth and they kept the lists of people. Some of them dispersed in the jungle. So, did the police and journalists began documenting. Smartphones had not arrived.
'Tina!'
'Raj!'
'Nishit!'
'We care!'
The calls and echoes reverberated in the jungle. The zookeepers of Prink Zoo from Prink also joined the four search parties. There were some zookeepers in each group as they were very well versed in animal and bird, care and capture. Few of the zookeepers were not only thinking to help the search but also capturing some animals or birds for the zoo. They were so weird!
Till this date, nothing had been found by the police even though a week had gone by! So, some of the people of the two districts decided they could not wait anymore… whereas most of the people were indifferent and quiet. They did not wish to be targeted by Promdhu extremists. So, they decided to distance themselves and not get involved at all.
The police carried out its own independent search. In some places, both police and people looked. In most countries with places like Nimbushaya, helicopters are not used for civilan search but rather for influential people.
With concrete roads, many dhaba owners did not recall seeing black minivan with broken window. Teachers thought that they might have kept off concrete paths where civilans are present.
After ghat road ended, for concrete road with no civilans followed by mud paths, there were atleast 25 possibilities. Again, after the end of ghat road, there were atleast 20 possibilities of mud paths. They conveyed this to police. Moreover, police also checked with Vehicle repair shops in the two districts. They found the minivan whose photos was identified by Lisha, Leena and Shreyas.
But the missing three were nowhere to be found!