An adult pet dog that was fitted with a GPS tracker to trace two-year-old Sunkara Gnaneswari, who has been missing from a palm oil plantation at Ch. Agraharam in Tuni mandal of Kakinada district, died on Saturday afternoon.Gnaneswari and her pet dog went missing on June 6, and the dog returned home on June 9. The pet dog was the only companion of the girl when she went missing. It was also the key source to trace the girl.“The pet dog has walked for nearly 80 km since it was fitted with a GPS tracker. It died after it returned home from the orchards surrounding the village. It is suspected to have been infected with a virus,” Tuni Rural Sub-Inspector Mr. Krishnamachari told The Hindu.The pet dog was kept in a cage for two days before deploying it for the search operation with the GPS tracker.On June 6, Sunkara Ganesh and his wife Bhavani went to the palm oil palm plantation along with their daughter and the pet dog. The couple is working as caretakers of the plantation. The girl went missing after a miscommunication between the parents, who each assumed that the other had brought the girl back home from the plantation. On reaching home, they realised neither of them had brought the girl from the plantation. The search operation is going on and the area where the girl and the dog reportedly roamed is being monitored with CCTV cameras for clue.At least 250 personnel from the Police Department and State Disaster Response Force are involved in the search operation, said Tuni Circle Inspector G. Chennakesava Rao. Published - June 13, 2026 07:03 pm IST