CHANDIGARH: A three-year-old girl who was trapped after falling into a 200 to 250 feet deep borewell at Sihi village in Faridabad of Haryana was pulled out safely today morning after an intensive rescue operation lasting ten hours but she was declared died by doctors afterwards.
The borewell had been abandoned for several years and contained water at a depth of 125 feet, which significantly hampered the rescue operation. The child was trapped upside down at a depth of around 200 feet. The rescue teams worked through the night, illuminating the area, excavating around the borewell and lowering a camera into the shaft. Also oxygen was also supplied as teams tried to reach the child. Initially, rescuers could hear the girl crying from inside the borewell, but the sound stopped after some time.
The equipment brought by the rescue teams proved ineffective inside the borewell, following which a tool was fabricated on-site with the help of a local car mechanic. Then after a strenuous effort, rescuers managed to pull her out by her legs, but she was unresponsive.
The girl was pulled out of the borewell at around 4 am and rushed to a private hospital, where doctors declared her brought dead.
"We have kept the body in the mortuary. A post-mortem examination will be conducted to ascertain the exact cause of her death," said a senior police officer.
The multi-agency joint operation for the rescue work was carried out by National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) along with State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), Haryana fire department, Municipal Corporation and Health Department and several others. The NDRF team received information about the incident at around 8 pm and reached the site from Ghaziabad at about 9 pm. By then, teams from other departments were already engaged in the rescue operation.
NDRF Deputy Commandant Kunal Tiwari said the rescue operation was conducted jointly by the various agencies and confirmed that the girl was sent for medical treatment after being brought out.
Police officials said that the incident took place when the girl was playing and had climbed on a truck parked nearby the borwell at around 6 PM yesterday and then she slipped and fell into the borewell when other children alerted her family and others.
Ramdin father of the deceased girl who was at work when the incident occurred said that he came to known from the villagers that his daughter Neha fell into the borewell while playing with other children near the borewell who’s lid had been removed a few days ago and it belonged to the Municipal Corporation of Faridabad which had been closed for about 15 years.
"A tractor was parked nearby and the children had climbed onto it while playing. Neha allegedly slipped from the tractor and fell into the borewell,"’ he said.
Originally from Mainpuri in Uttar Pradesh, he has been living in Sihi village with his wife and children for several years and works as a labourer.
The circumstances surrounding the uncovered borewell have put the focus on possible lapses in securing abandoned civic infrastructure. Sanjeev Kumar, Executive Engineer of the Municipal Corporation of Faridabad, said the borewell had been sealed with a lid about 15 years ago and that the civic body had not received any information regarding the lid being removed. `` The matter will be investigated and action will be taken in accordance with the rules against whoever is found to be negligent,” he said.
The incident has triggered anger among the locals of Sector 8, who have questioned the handling of the abandoned borewell by the Municipal Corporation as they alleged that the accident could have been prevented had the borewell been securely sealed.
The incident comes months after another borewell tragedy in Haryana. In July, a four-year-old boy, Nirvair Singh, fell into a 220-foot-deep open borewell in Ambala district. Nirvair was pulled out at around 3.40 am after a gruelling 21-hour multi-agency rescue operation and was immediately shifted by ambulance to the Civil Hospital in Ambala Cantonment. But doctors declared him brought dead.
