ATHANI: The last thread of hope for the parents of Kaveri, the six-year-old who was trapped inside an abandoned borewell in Athani Taluk, was broken after the rescue team members found her dead at 28 feet below following a frantic effort of 56 hours.
On Saturday (April 22), Kaveri Madar had accidentally slipped into the abandoned borewell in her neighbouring field when she had gone to collect firewood along with her siblings. Several rescue attempts in the last three days could not yield any results and the girl was retrieved dead a few minutes before midnight on Monday.
Kaveri’s parents along with relatives were inconsolable after doctors at the site packed her body and shifted it to a government hospital in Kokatnur.
Doctors suspect that Kaveri died within few hours of her fall into the 300ft-deep borewell. Kaveri was found at a depth of 28 feet when the rescue teams finally reached after facing several hardships.
Earlier in the day, attempts to reach the girl by drilling the area around the borewell could not yield results as the drilling machines kept intercepting the boulders and hard rocks. On Monday night at 9.30 pm one of the drilling machines developed technical snag after which the rescue was halted for two hours.
The rescue team members said that the front chip of the machine had to be replaced and a spare one from Athani, 30 km away, was requisitioned.
Belagavi police are expected to book cases against the owner of the land where the abandoned borewell became Kaveri’s death trap.
The revenue officials were asked to provide the details of land, including survey number and ownership. The owner of the land Shankar Hipparagi has transferred the 5-acre land in his son’s name. The police are set to book the father-son duo.