THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: After a long 48-hour search and rescue operation, the body of 51-year-old Tamil Nadu native Maharajan, who was buried alive inside a well after the middle portion of the well caved in while laying concrete rings at Mukkola near Vizhinjam on Monday, has been recovered.
Maharajan was trapped inside the 90-ft-deep well of a house at Mukkola owned by G Sukumaran after he, along with four other labourers, was laying concrete rings at 9 AM on Saturday.
His co-worker, Manikandan, had a miraculous escape as he managed to hold onto the rope and was swiftly pulled out by other co-workers who were standing above.
Maharajan, an experienced well sanitation worker, was the one who worked deep inside. Suddenly, a part of the soil inside the well caved in, and he was trapped under the soil. The fire and rescue services deployed around 60 men for the operations.
However, they failed to retrieve Maharajan’s body. Though four units of the fire and rescue team arrived and started a rescue operation, it was difficult as the diameter of the well was only 1.5 m and only two men could enter the well at a time.
As one of the men went to the bottom of the well to dig out the soil, the other kept a watch on the soil movement to avert any mishaps. Initial efforts to take the rescue officers to the well went in vain. Later, a 25-member NDRF team from Alappuzha arrived at the spot on Sunday.
They came with the latest equipment, including chain-pulling units and oxygen masks, and conducted the rescue operations round-the-clock. Also, a group of 20 labourers from Kollam joined the rescue operations. On Monday morning, the body of Maharajan was taken out.
Regional fire officer K Abdul Rasheed said loose soil inside the well was posing safety issues, and hence the retrieval of the body was delayed. A total of four units of the fire and rescue team from Vizhinjam, Chenkalchoola, and Neyyattinkara fire stations were on the spot.
Maharajan started the well-cleaning work after the pandemic. Earlier, he had a tea shop. He had been residing with his family at Venganoor for the past 30 years. He is a native of Parvathipuram in Nagercoil.