Family offers $100k reward to find missing Snowy Mountains bushwalker Prabhdeep Srawn

ABC News

June 10, 2013

The family of a man who has been missing in the NSW Snowy Mountains for almost a month has doubled the reward for anyone who finds him, after searchers decided to stop using drone aircraft to look for him.

Authorities say 25-year-old Prabhdeep Srawn drove to Charlotte Pass Village to go bushwalking to Mount Kosciuszko on May 13.

A Perth-based company lent a radio-controlled aircraft equipped with cameras over the weekend to those still looking for the Canadian hiker.

However, heavy winds at the summit of Mount Kosciuszko have made the drones difficult to control while thick cloud means it has been impossible to take pictures of the terrain.

Family member Tej Sahota says $100,000 is now on offer for anyone who finds Mr Srawn, after posting a $50,000 reward last week.

"We figured that that would maybe entice a lot more people and since then, in just 24 hours, I've had maybe five or six different climbers or hikers reach out to me and try and figure out a way that they could be helpful," he said.

The police search operation has been scaled back but Mr Sahota says the family has not given up hope of finding Mr Srawn.

"We maintain some evidence has to turn up. He just can't disappear into thin air. That's physically impossible," he said.

"There has to be some evidence of him on that mountain. Our conviction tells us that he's going to be alive, but we're looking for some sort of evidence ... until we get that evidence, we're not going to quit on this."

However, Mr Sahota says only experienced hikers should take-up the reward offer.

"We've always maintained nobody should put Prabh ahead of their personal safety," he said.

"We don't want any other family in Australia to go through what we've been going through, so we want to make sure that only experienced hikers are going up there."

Police say they cannot stop the family offering a reward and are urging anyone who takes up the offer to be careful.