Army Special Forces join search for missing Kaieteur Falls tourist

Sep 04, 2015 News

A Special Forces team from the Guyana Defence Force has joined the search for Gyaneshwarie Lalita Sivanand, who disappeared on Tuesday while on a tour of the Kaieteur Falls.
According to reports from the Office of the Presidency, up to late last evening the woman had not been found and a decision was taken to add the Special Forces to the search party which already comprise park rangers, the Guyana Police Force, Guyana Defence Force and Civil Defence Commission.
Late Tuesday afternoon, reports were received that one tourist from a flight to the Kaieteur National Park, which initially had nine passengers, was discovered missing. A search operation was immediately launched by the National Parks Commission Rangers.
Sivanand, who is employed in the field of Human Resource, is a former employee of Laparkan and Singer’s.
She was part of a nine man touring party that left the ogle airport for a tour of the world famous water falls in an Air Services Limited aircraft.
Reports are that the woman was seen crying and talking on her phone while on the airplane was heading to the tourist destination.

Missing: Gyaneshwarie Lalita Sivanand

When the aircraft landed at the falls the woman appeared to brighten.
However, Sivanand was discovered missing when the tour guide was distributing chits to the passengers for snacks, at the Kaieteur airstrip before they boarded the aircraft back to Ogle.
One of her colleagues on the trip said that the missing woman was with the party when it was returning along the trail from the falls.
She said that the woman lagged behind and when they urged her to walk up she said that she knew the place and that she had been there several times before.
She spoke of being with a British team that discovered some caves in the Kaieteur Falls area a few years ago.
Reports are that all of the trails in the Park were searched and binoculars were also used to view the area below the falls and along the sides of the gorge. However, there is still no trace of the woman.
As a result of the incident all tours to the Kaieteur National Park continue to be suspended.
The Ministry of the Presidency noted that they continue to treat the matter as a search for a missing person case and remain hopeful that she will be located.
This publication visited the woman’s home at Durban Backlands and spoke to her husband Rabindranauth Sivanand, but he did not wish to say much. He however echoed the sentiments of an elderly woman at the home that it is, “A troubling, worrisome and stressful time for the family.”
He said that he last saw his wife on Tuesday morning, adding that “she left to go out but she did not say where she was going.” He also expressed hope, saying, “I hope that they find her and that she is found alive.”
When asked if there may have been problems in the home before she left, the husband said such information is his private business.