Andhra Pradesh: Toddler rescued nearly 12 hours after falling into borewell

Chandrasekhar had tumbled into the borewell around 3 pm on Tuesday, while his mother was away fetching fodder for their cattle from a nearby field.

A toddler was rescued from a 20-foot-deep borewell in Andhra Pradesh’s Guntur district by a team of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel, policemen and administrative officials in the wee hours of Wednesday, nearly 12 hours after the operation was launched on Tuesday afternoon.

The boy, identified as Chandrasekhar, was playing near a cattle shed at Ummadivaram village when he accidentally fell into the borewell around three on Tuesday afternoon.(ANI Photo)

The rescue team lifted two-year-old Chandrasekhar out of the borewell around 2.45 am, even as hundreds of people – including local minister Pattipati Pulla Rao, Guntur collector Kona Sasidhar and rural superintendent of police Venkatappa Naidu – looked on with relief.

The authorities handed the boy over to his parents, small-time farmers Mallika and Anusha, after administering first aid at a government ambulance stationed at the spot. Doctors pronounced the boy, who was said to be smiling upon being drawn out of the well, as healthy.

Chandrasekhar tumbled into the borewell at Ummidivaram village around 3 pm on Tuesday, while Anusha was away fetching fodder for their cattle from a nearby field. Police and district officials launched rescue operations immediately after they were informed. NDRF personnel, who reached the spot soon afterwards, began pumping oxygen into the borewell while digging a parallel crater to reach the boy.

Rescue workers reportedly inserted iron plates under the earth to prevent Chandrasekhar from falling deeper into the borewell as the parallel crater was being dug. Though rain hampered rescue operations late at night, the team persisted with its efforts until the boy was retrieved.