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Marathon rescue op goes in vain, boy who fell into borewell dies in hospital
The boy had fallen into the borewell while playing on Wednesday.
A 20-hour-long non-stop rescue operation went in vain as a four-year-old boy was declared dead in hospital soon after he was brought out of a borewell at Budhaura village in Mahoba district of Uttar Pradesh’s Bundelkhand region on Thursday, officials said.
“The boy was unconscious and all efforts to revive him failed. He was declared dead after an hour (of being taken to the hospital),” said sub-divisional magistrate Mohammad Awes.
“We did everything possible to save the child. Oxygen was supplied round the clock and biscuits were passed on. Everyone is sad at the loss,” said district magistrate Satyendra Kumar.
The boy had fallen into the borewell while playing on Wednesday.
On Thursday morning, a jawan of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) moved through a parallel duct which was built to reach the boy who was stuck at a depth of 36 foot in the 160-foot borewell.
The jawan brought the boy out amid the villagers’ cheers.
The child was rushed to the Mahoba district hospital, where a team of five doctors was on stand-by since Wednesday, but he was declared dead.
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Earlier, on Wednesday, Dharmendra fell into the borewell while playing. The incident took place when he accompanied his father Bhaghirath and mother Kanti, who were working at a field nearby.
Bhaghirath had dug the borewell about nine months ago for irrigation. Since it failed to provide any water, it was lying closed. A stone slab was put on the opening at that time but someone removed it on Wednesday, the police said.
The local administration quickly arranged excavator machines and began rescue work, but faced hiccups as it was initially difficult to assess the depth at which the child was stuck.
Two teams of the NDRF and the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) were rushed to Mahoba. The teams reached Budhaura village, around 30 kilometres from the district headquarters, around midnight.
By that time, 28-foot parallel digging had been done. Experts found that the child was trapped at the depth of 36-feet. Further digging was done to create a tunnel that went at least two-feet below the point the boy was at.
At 9 am on Thursday, an NDRF jawan went through this tunnel, which was connected to the borewell, and managed to bring the boy out.
A pall of gloom descended on Budhaura village. Bhaghirath and his wife were inconsolable on losing their only son.
Unattended private borewells were a big problem in the area, which is marked as a dark zone, according to Uttar Pradesh Jal Nigam’s executive engineer S Niranjan. Dark zone refers to an area where the groundwater level is critically low.
He also said the department was writing to the district administration to take effective action.
