BHOPAL: Five men, aged between 25 and 30 years, died due to suspected inhalation of poisonous gas after they descended into a well to rescue a calf in Madhya Pradesh’s Guna district on Tuesday.
The well with around 12-ft-deep water is located in an agricultural farm at Dharnawada village. “The deaths occurred prima facie due to carbon monoxide poisoning inside the well.
The fall of the calf into the well prompted the five men to go inside to rescue it. How the calf fell into the well is being investigated. Due compensation will be paid to the bereaved families,” Guna district collector Kishore Kanyal said.
According to eyewitnesses, the incident happened in the agricultural farm when some men were plucking mangoes. Seeing the calf fall into the well, five men entered the well one after another, but didn’t return. “Local residents first began the rescue operations.
They were later joined by the local administration and police rescue teams,” eyewitness Radha Mohan said. Teams of SDERF and CISF personnel deployed at the National Fertilizers Ltd and GAIL units in Guna carried out the rescue operations but failed to save the five men.