Click to play videoHyderabad: India's biggest search and rescue operation to locate Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Rajashekhara Reddy in the dense Nallamalla forests and hills stretching across Kurnool, Prakasam and Kadapa districts resumed at the crack of dawn on Thursday.
Helicopter search operations had been called off in the night because of poor visibility and bad weather conditions. But state police and 5,000 personnel of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) conducted search operations on foot throughout the night with help of forest officials.
Andhra's Greyhound commandos, raised to fight Naxals, are also helping in the search operation along with specialised anti-terrorist force Organisation for Counter Terrorism and Operations (Octopus) teams.
The newly-formed anti-Naxal force Combat Battalion for Resolute Action (Cobra), which are under the command of the CRPF have also been deployed for the search operations.
An Army column from Bangalore has also been also called in to assist in the search and rescue operations.
The Indian Air Force (IAF) has also sent three helicopters from Bangalore for the search operation while one private helicopter from Nellore is also scouring the area for any signs of the missing Chief Minister and his entourage.
IAF will also press into service Su-30 MKI fighter aircraft with synthetic aperture radar for high resolution ground mapping in and around Kurnool.
Satellite imagery is also being used to trace the missing helicopter. Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has also provided special low flying aircraft and remote sensing equipment and satellite imagery to aide the search operation.
Search and rescue teams are also looking at the possibility of Reddy's helicopter landing at Sri Sailam Dam which is situated 98 km from Markapuram. The dam is across the Krishna River at Srisailam in the Kurnool district.
An operations command post has been set up at Atmakur town in Kurnool district as the search teams believe that the helicopter would have been in the vicinity of the town when it lost contact with the Air Traffic Controller at the Begumpet Airport in Hyderabad at 0935 hrs IST while on his way from Karnool to Chittoor.
But the search operation is proving to be a big challenge for rescue teams due to bad weather and presence of Naxals.
The terrain is hilly with dense forest slowing down the search operations further. Besides, communication is poor in the area, complicating the matters.
As there has been no confirmation of the area where the helicopter might be, so the search operation is spread over six districts.
The only good thing is that rescue teams have identified the area where the last air signals from the helicopter were received.
"We have identified an area of about five km radius. In that area the last contact with air traffic control was made. Tomorrow (Thursday) we will drop parties in that area... and helicopter and aircraft will be flying at low level to take images and to do the ground search," Union Minister of State for Science and Technology Prithviraj Chavan said on Wednesday night.
Reddy has been untraceable since Wednesday morning after the helicopter carrying him went off the radar and lost all contacts with the ATC.
The Andhra Chief Minister was accompanied by his Principal Secretary S Subramanyam and Chief Security Officer ASC Wesley.
There were two pilots - group captain S K Bhatia and captain M S Reddy - on board the twin-engine Bell 430 helicopter which is presumed to have disappeared over the Naxal-infested Nallamalla forests.
The 60-year-old Congress leader, who led the party to a remarkable victory in the recent Assembly and Lok Sabha polls, left Hyderabad for Chitoor at 0835 hrs IST in the helicopter.
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