BIJAPUR: A four-year-old girl fell into an open borewell that has been defunct for the past two years, on Tuesday night. The victim is Akshata, daughter of Hanumant Malipatil and Savita. The family had come from Vastari village in Jeevaragi taluk in Gulbarga district as agricultural labourers.
Police said Akshata and two others had accompanied Malipatil, who had stepped out when the electricity went off.
On the way, a stray dog came towards them. Hearing it bark, the trio started running back. While two of them reached home safely, Akshata tripped and fell into the borewell.
District In-charge Minister M B Patil and a team of robotic experts visited the spot on Wednesday. The team said the best option to reach the girl was by using a support plate, for which it was necessary to drill the borewell vertically for another five feet.
The experts estimated that the girl was about 30 feet down. Following this, the robot would be lowered into the borewell.
A unit of the Pune-based National Disaster Response Corps also reached the spot on Wednesday.
The team consists of 35 members and they use advanced technological machines like victim-location cameras and audio-recording devises.
A member of the team said that though the voice of the girl could not be recorded, there were faint images of a body and cloth.
A team from the Hutti Gold Mines is also involved in the rescue operations.
The agitated villagers told the police that the borewell was drilled about two years ago, but has been kept open since. They also alleged that there were more open borewells in the surrounding fields.