Indian rescue workers save isolated monk meditating in the Himalayas

Rescue workers in north India trekked for nearly 25 miles to save a Hindu monk, who was trapped in snow, while meditating in isolation in the mountains on Saturday (January 26).

The monk, Swami Paraswanand, 45, had been meditating all alone in Kedarnath, one of the most sacred Hindu pilgrimage centres, in the Himalayas at Uttarkhand state.

All the residents of Kedarnath, located at a height of 11,800 feet, vacate the town in the winter months due to harsh weather.

But Swami Paraswanand stayed back to meditate in isolation. As the town of Kedarnath received record snow and plunged into sub-zero temperatures his health deteriorated.

Believing that the monk was in trouble, devotees alerted Uttarkhand’s State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), which sent a team to extract the monk.

Eight rescue workers trekked for over 23 miles in deep snow and brought back the monk on a stretcher.

The tough monk, who managed to walk back some distance by himself, thanked the SDRF men for saving his life.