After constantly hearing people complain about how technology is taking over our lives and leading us to disconnect without those close to us, we proudly bring to you a real-life incident where technology combined with Delhi Police’s constant efforts rescued a little girl.
On Wednesday night, Rashmi a seven-year-old girl found herself at an unknown place in Delhi with no idea where to go or what to do. Rashmi had come with her parents to attend a wedding and amidst the celebrations somehow walked out of the venue and lost her way. She panicked and started crying upon reaching a deserted road. Luckily, Rashmi was spotted by a Delhi Police Constable and taken to the Malviya Nagar police station.
The police team asked Rashmi questions about her parents’ name and contact information, where she is from and if she can direct them to where she lives. But the little girl was too scared and panic-struck to provide any information except that she had come with her parents to attend a wedding and it took her 4 hours to reach Delhi.
After taking all this information from the little girl, the police started to list all towns and cities located 4 hours away from Delhi using none other than the app our life often depends on – Google Maps. The police then probed the girl to describe all the landmarks she saw during her journey. With such descriptive information, the police were able to successfully guess that she was from Western UP. The police officials then zeroed in on Meerut’s map. The girl said that there is a lake near her village, so using Google Maps the police team was able to zero in the villages in Meerut that had a lake.
Later, a list of villages with the matching description was noted and the Sarpanch of all these villages were contacted.The cops, finally managed to find the girl’s village – Kol, located 44 km from Meerut, with the help of satellite images provided by Google Maps and handed the girl to her family only after confirming the child’s details with the head of the village or Sarpanch.
After coming across this happy ending I can proudly say that that is why I have loved technology – if you use it right, it gives you the power to transform and even save lives. A big shout out to the Delhi Police and Google Maps!
