Loose soil slows rescue of Uttar Pradesh girl trapped in borewell

Rescuers on Friday were struggling to reach an eight-year-old girl trapped in a 60-foot borewell in Uttar Pradesh’s Farrukhabad district since Wednesday as loose soil continued to hamper their efforts, officials said.

Indian Army and National Disaster Relief Force personnel were trying to reach Seema in Rashidapur through a parallel channel that was being dug up, said the officials. She was found at 26 foot on Thursday morning and on Friday morning, she went further into the borewell at 34 foot, according to officials.

“The problem is the girl is sliding down in the borewell as the digging progresses,” said an official.

The army has evacuated seven houses in the vicinity. People have moved out of these houses leaving their belongings inside after the army felt the digging could cause damage to them.

It is not clear how Seema fell into the borewell, which was being dug up by her uncle Mahesh Singh. Labourers left for lunch leaving the borewell unguarded after they dug up to about 60 feet of soil. A villager first heard the girl screaming from inside the borewell.

He dialled the 100 integrated emergency response system number after which the police arrived. The army was called in from the Fatehgarh Garrison after initial efforts to rescue the girl failed.

Officials said the girl had asked for water on Thursday night, which was given to her through a pipe.

The army doubled the strength of its soldiers late on Thursday night to accelerate the rescue operation. At present 130 army soldiers were working in Rashidapur to save the girl.

Two army soldiers suffered minor injuries after they were trapped during the rescue when soil caved in during digging. Both of them were brought out with the help of a rope.

This is not the first time a child has fallen into uncovered borewells, which have turned into death traps for children in the past.

An 18-month-old boy, who fell into a 60-feet deep borewell in Haryana’s Hisar district in March this year, was rescued safely after being trapped for around 47 hours.

A massive operation was launched in 2006 to rescue five-year-old Prince, who had fallen into a borewell in a village in Kurukshetra. He was pulled out after nearly 48 hours.