A four-year-old boy fell into a 220-foot-deep borewell at Dhaneora village in Ambala district of Haryana on Tuesday morning, triggering a multi-agency rescue operation.
The incident occurred around 7am when the boy, Nirvair Singh, was out in the fields with his father Manjeet Singh to hand-over breakfast to his grandfather Karnail Singh.
The boy accidentally slipped into the nine-metre-diameter open shaft dug for a tubewell while both men were busy with work.
Upon hearing Nirvair’s screams, Karnail raised the alarm and alerted police, who then informed the district administration. Ambala deputy commissioner Ajay Singh Tomar rushed to the site to oversee the operations.
Tomar said the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) initiated the rescue, and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the Indian Army were called in to assist.
“A joint operation is being carried out to rescue the child. Rescuers have lowered a camera into the borewell and are trying to rescue him at the earliest using special equipment. A health team is also at the spot, which treated his grandfather and father, who have been in shock since the incident. Additionally, the fire department and other teams were also on the scene assisting the rescue teams,” Tomar said.
The DC, however, refused to comment on the child’s condition by late evening. Tomar further disclosed that he ordered legal action against the neighbour for leaving the borewell open in the field where it was located.
{{/usCountry}}The DC, however, refused to comment on the child’s condition by late evening. Tomar further disclosed that he ordered legal action against the neighbour for leaving the borewell open in the field where it was located.
{{/usCountry}}Sanjeev Kumar, an inspector with the SDRF, told reporters that they were hopeful to rescue the boy soon. “We made an earlier attempt, but it was unsuccessful. The depth is around 240 feet, and although our second attempt is underway, we are now monitoring the situation with the help of cameras,” he added.”
It was also learnt that officials focused only on the existing borewell, using hooks and other equipment, instead of digging a parallel borewell due to the area’s two water tables. “Dugging a parallel borewell could fill it with water and hamper the rescue again,” an official said.
However, as a last-ditch effort, the administration has moved special equipment which might be used to dig a parallel borewell on Wednesday, if the rescuers fail to rescue the child, officials said. Light rain on multiple occasions hampered the operations, but a tent and other arrangements were made by the army and the administration. Rescue operations were still on at the time of this report.
The four-year-old was set to step into the kindergarten school from Wednesday. Son of an electricity board employee, he had returned from Kurukshetra after spending his summer vacations at his maternal grandmother’s house.
Hope the boy survives, says ‘borewell boy’ Prince Kumar
The incident evokes chilling memories of the July 23, 2006, rescue of five-year-old Prince Kumar in Haryana’s neighbouring Kurukshetra district. Prince’s 50-hour ordeal inside a 60-foot borewell was India’s first major televised rescue mission, captivating the nation and ultimately prompting the Supreme Court to issue strict guidelines for capping abandoned borewells.
Now 24, Prince is praying for Nirvair’s safe rescue and hoping that he is also as lucky as he was two-decades ago. Prince said that he learnt about the Ambala incident through his friends and got flashbacks of his rescue.
He had fallen into a 60-foot-deep borewell covered with a jute sack and was safely rescued by the Indian Army’s Ambala-based Kharge Corps, making headlines and 50 hours of straight live-TV coverage. The rescuers provided oxygen and milk supplies using ropes, while a hot bulb lowered accidentally burned his hands.
The rescue teams used heavy machinery to dig a parallel shaft and later a horizontal iron-pipe was reinforced to bridge both the borewells. After the challenging 50-hour long operation, Prince was rescued alive, sending celebrations across the country. Prince is now working as a plumber at a hospital and still looking for a stable job after completing ITI training in Ambala.